Deal With It
by Child of the Dragon
Summary: The Kingdom Hearts characters are going to college! Along the way they're going to face many adult, and some not so adult, problems, situations and general insanity. Better summery and full authors note inside. M for later chapters and rants.
1. Author's Note please read

**The Better Summary: **

Sora, Kairi and Riku are made to go to College. Now that they're all grown up, the balance of the worlds has been more or less restored and there isn't any more excessive darkness trying to nom away at aforementioned worlds. King Mickey has promised he can take care of things while they're away but for now, he wants the three to go back to school and get a decent education, learn about all the things they missed out on being the Keybearers. When they get to Anehmoo Academy they find that they aren't the only ones made to go on this wild ride of self-discovery. The entire Organization XIII has shown up as well, and they've hijacked a fraternity house so they're here to stay! Plus, there are plenty more familiar faces slinking about. Now they all have to deal with one another, on top of things like drugs, alcohol, love, sex both with protection and without, paying rent and bills, not to mention feeding themselves, and oh yeah! They Still Have To Get Good Grades And Graduate!

**DWI AUTHOR'S NOTES**

Hello everyone! It's CoD, returning to you from the deadzone known as real life! Yaaaay! Ummm, this is a real quick author's note for you all so that we can get on the same page because it's been a while since I've done this and I just want to babble at you so that you all understand some things. No, it's not really required but _**I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE ALL OF YOU TO BEAR WITH ME AND READ THROUGH THIS WHOLE NOTE SO YOU DON'T GET LOST!**_! Trust me, it could save you from a lot of headaches….

Anyways, first to any of my readers form way back in the day: HEEEEEY! I hope you're all doing alright and for those of you that write as well I hope you've been improving over the years that I've been away. I certainly hope I have. I apologize that this is NOT a DragonballZ (although, you may want to read the first chapter for some lulz) or Avatar the last Airbender or Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction, as was my usual standard, but ONCE AGAIN I find myself branching off into a whole new fandom. *A whooole neew woooorld!*Ahem!* I really hope some of you can enjoy this. And I hope all of you can understand my moving spastically from fandom to fandom the way that I do. No, sadly, I REALLY don't see myself writing anymore of the DBZ, AtlA or FMA fics that I once so very much loved, but I'm going to try VERY HARD to keep this one alive because GOD DAMNIT, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy have been like a mind eating disease in my head lately! And I have a lot of pent up writing frustrations that I fully intend to take out on these characters. To those of you intending to stick around for the ride where you knew me back in my Saiyan tormenting days, YOU KNOW the shit Sora and company are in for. Start sponsoring the newbies and make sure they understand where EXACTLY this is headed.

And hey, to all you new faces out there! Welcome! It's always lovely to see new faces! Such sweet innocence to violate and corrupt! NyaHa! Of course, who the fuck are we kidding? Just so all you new people who've never read my shit before know, I'm old. I'm like, ANCIENT by some of your standards. You know how you can tell? Because I'm going to start in with the "BACK IN MY DAY" stories. Yes. Yes, I am. BACK IN MY DAY, when I was just a wee little pup of 14 years old, learning the ropes of online fanfiction sharing and just starting to write for this here site, back in the days when I walked to school because we didn't have cars, Uphill, BOTH ways, little sister AND little brother ON MY BACK, with ALL our book bags, and they weighed 15 pounds EACH, BAREfoot, IN THE SNOW, during the HEATWAVE of 1797….YES. Back In THOSE DAYS, I remember things to be VEEEEERY different. First and foremost, NO ONE POSTED STORIES WITH SEXUAL CONTEXT ON FANFICTION(DOT)NET! YOU HAD TO GO TO ADULTFANFICTION(DOT)NET FOR THAT KIND OF SHIT! IF YOU TRIED IT, BAN HAMMER OF ALMIGHTY JUSTICE WOULD COME SLAMMING DOWN ON YOUR HEAD SO FAST YOUR ANCESTIORS FELT THE BLOW!

I still cannot really get over "suddenly" finding, rather descriptive I should add here, sexual stories on this site. I mean, I don't even see anybody attempting to censor it so that minors can't read it. Which, I know, you minors would just find a way around it and your parents should really be the ones monitoring what you're being exposed to anyway (and I will ALWAYS highly encourage ANY and ALL of you to stay in and write about sexual exploits rather than be out there on the street committing them, kudos to you smart children!), BUT DAMN. DAAAAAAAAMN. I miss the days when I had something to fear; when I felt like there were boundaries to push and see "how much" I could get away with. Part of the reason I'm writing a KH fanfic now is because it's kinda the only series that could possibly help me get over this whole "Wow, FF(dot)net has really gone to HELL as of late" issue that I'm having. On the one hand, Sora & CO are largely young minors in the games and therefore most of the fanfics and I don't really support gangbanging children. (YOU ARE ALL FIVE YEAR OLD CHILDREN UNTILL YOU TURN 18, DO NOT ARGUE WITH MY LOGIC!) On the other hand, let's face a very simple fact: I'm a giant pedobear for little anime boys at heart (real little boys tend to be dirty and gross). If I could just hug their cute little innocent faces to my chest for the rest of my/their lives, I could die happy and fulfilled. But since the laws in most states seem to frown heavily upon that kind of thing, here we are.

Now what does all this mean for you readers? Quite simply put, I'm an insane, old, crotchety lady set in her ways that's prone to fits of verbal violence and just won't die. The shining hope is that I'm hoping to break form some of that and go forth to explore uncharted territories (for me), possibly having fun and laughing manically the whole way! Hey, I said SOME. The insanity stays, alright? I write better when I feel like injecting crazy on otherwise-would be normal characters in a normal situation….

Alright, so, here are the footnotes you need to know pertaining to the actual story I have planned:

MOST IMPORTANTLY: I haven't FULLY played the Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy 7 games. YEP. I'M FLYING AROUND NEARLY COMPLETELY BLIND HERE. Not entirely as I DO have 3 betas going over this to make sure my shit lines up, but here's the thing: they aren't allowed to tell me anything about the games because I HATE SPOILERS! Mostly because I Just Keep Running Into Them! A secret little power I've always had is to just be able to sense certain things by just LOOKING at a picture of a character and maybe only being given their name. My HONEST TO GOD first reaction to Roxas, literally was, "Well, that's just lazy! The creators just took Sora's name, rearranged the letters and slapped an x in there to make it less obvious that that's what they did to get his name!" When I was going over how I was going to work having Terra, Aqua and Ventus in this story a long side Sora, Riku and Kairi, my beta starting yelling at me to "SHUT UP! YOU BASICALLY JUST TOLD YOURSELF THE ENDING TO BIRTH BY SLEEP! HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT SHIT?" So yeah, anything that just seems to make ironic sense in this fic? Go With It, cuz I had NO idea. The betas are my only guiding light. Sorta. _;;

On the note of the betas, two of them are allowing me to barrow original characters for this story. SO BE NICE. The only OC I "claim" for my own, is Mr. Poopoopants, and yes that is his name. You'll see why, eventually. Hopefully all you Zexion fans won't kill me dead. I'm just saying. Don't you worry though, there isn't TOO MUCH OCxSomeNonOC going on, so let's not get our panties all twisted up in bunches over this. I needed more teachers and I wanted some more students. SOME TIMES IT CAN IN FACT BE A GOOD THING TO WATCH YOUR BELOVED CHARACTERS INTERACT WITH OTHER BEINGS OUTSIDE OF THE SERIES THEY HAIL FROM. Most of the OCs are going to be side support anyways to help things move along. Such as in the case of Terra. Poor, poor Terra. I'm told I'm going to feel very, very, very bad for what I inflict upon him in this story once I start playing BbS. With a laugh I say, nay nay. Because let's face facts: I'm also a sadist at heart.

On that note, let's address that I have a dark side and it can be twisted. I know a lot of my other fanfics on here have been rather tame, but it's been four years since I posted on here and I'd like to think I've evolved. This is a heavy warning that _**SOME REALLY SERIOUS SHIT WILL HIT FANS!**_ Both in the sense of the wind makers and probably your face as well. For that latter part, I apologize. But this is about four years of pent up fanfic frustrations coming to a head and I'm damn determined to pick up a sledge hammer and go to town seeing how much damage I can do. Why Kingdom Hearts? Because gameplay is apparently not a legitimate story telling method to me and having to go through the games, in which my masochism and stubbornness come out to play hardball, is really pissing me off even if I am damn determined to do so of my own accord. (Read that: I have _started_ to play Kingdom Hearts 1, but being a non-gamer and stubborn bitch it's taking me a while to figure out the Alice In Wonderland level. Like a year and a half long while. [Update, December 30th: Got a friend helping me with the levels now. I'm up to Agrabah and it looks like I could have all these games completely played by the end of the year, which is good because it would SUCK if the world ended and I didn't get to play KH before everything officially went to hell.])

I have a pretty solid idea of what I'm going to make each of these beloved characters of yours wade through and I gotta be honest with all of you, some of it isn't going to be that pretty. This is not some fluffy fanfic of cuteness, where there's cuddles and kisses galore. It is not rated M solely for some graphic sex scenes. Humor, comedy and slapstick will not always be present. And I fully expect that every single one of you out there who read this will become enraged at some point in the timeline of this fanfic. Anyone who can sit and read through this calmly would be sheer awesomeness; in fact I practically challenge you to do so. Just so you understand, I'M WRITING THIS FOR ME. This has nothing to do with what any of you want. This is 100% all about what I just want to roll into one giant fanfic that spews forth all my personal fan-vendettas for ruining something that was already long ago fan-raped, further proving that die-hard fans can,_ and will_, ruin everything you hold sacred. I'm gunna do what I'm gunna do and anyone who wants to hand me shit for doing it can kiss my ass. Or bite my shiny metal ass. Whichever.

Don't get me wrong now; there is fluffiness, and kisses, and sex, and humor. But I don't want to hear any bitching about what a bitch I am for what I "did to Ventus," or how "Xemnas wouldn't act like that," or why did I "put those characters in a relationship with one another! Oh gaaaawd!" The fanfic is titled_ DEAL WITH IT_ for a reason. For several thousand reasons. And if that wasn't enough for you, let me underline another point about this story.

_**IT'S FANFICTION!**_

Fanfiction is _FICTIONAL_ works of literature written by a _FAN_ of a particular series, or sometimes several. I'm going to take some creative liberties with shit. I'm going to explore my ideas for what should happen to these characters. I'm going to play around with what I hope are original concepts, because I feel like I see the same themes again and again in fanfiction. The basic conception for this fic was instilled the day my friend told me, "the reason why there aren't that many KH collage stories are because no one wants to read about Sora getting drunk for the first time," to which my only response was, "YES, I DO, I WANT TO READ ABOUT THIS!" And here we are. Since then I have found a couple of KH fanfics with a college backdrop, only two of which I've actually enjoyed and were worth reading (to me). Perhaps I have impossibly high standards. Perhaps I'm reaching a new level of fanfiction writing. In any event I'm hoping that, if nothing else, this work will at least get YOU thinking about how much effort you put into YOUR fanfictions and inspire you to raise the bar a bit. Because good fanfiction is the only kind of fanfiction I was to read and write.

Finally but most importantly, I don't own anything in this story. Except that one charater, buuuut, no one cares about him. Also, I don't get paid to do this. Hell, if Disney or Square saw what I was doing here, I might actually be chased with pitchforks and torches. I certainly know one of my Betas is trying to rally a mob, and so that should tell you A LOT about what you're in for. I will not be offended if you can't stay all the way through to the end. Not only is this fanfic going to cross into dark waters, it's going to be long and tedious for everything I want to do with it. When I say I'm playing with your beloved Kingdom Hearts characters, I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. At last count that was roughly 40 characters. On top of that, I intended to do things with the Final Fantasy characters that also showed up in Kingdom Hearts. I'm looking at planning this to be a 100 chapter long fic thus far, just so I can cover the things I want to cover. So yeah, there's A LOT of stuff going into this but I do think it could be an enjoyable read if you're as willing to keep up with it as I'm willing to write it.

This all being said I think you understand better where I'm coming from. I feel better having said this now. Any other questions or comments can be directed into the reviews section and I will try to clarify any concerns you may have. But remember, I won't be offended if you don't like what I have written and quite frankly I won't care if you choose not to read it either now or at some point later on in the storyline. I'm writing this to prove that I can.

And now, I believe we can get on with the fic.


	2. CH1: Breaking Rules and Walls

**Chapter 1: Breaking Rules and Walls**

Sora smiled as he saw the world come into view through the windshield of his gummy ship. The trip had been long and tedious, with nearly no Heartless or Darkness crossing paths with him on his journey. Not that facing down the Darkness was ever to be considered a fun thing, but lately to Sora it seemed the fights were just a little too easy. What level had he reached now? Five hundred thirty-seven? Long since passed where the days where he was naïve and young, needing Donald or Goofy to look out for him. He sighed fondly at the memories; just because he didn't need them didn't mean he didn't miss them both terribly.

'_Among other people…_'

It was rare for him to see Kairi or Riku these days either. Rare, but not uncommon. King Mickey was usually very good with calling them all back to the castle for well needed and deserved rests from fighting, but the breaks never lasted more than a day or so at most. It couldn't be helped. Sora, Kairi and Riku where the only three Keyblade Masters for this generation and the Darkness had spread amply while they were inexperienced children. Now that the three of them were well in control of their powers, the king had decided the fastest way to fight the Darkness would be to split up and work individually. Sora didn't mind the long journeys alone, but he did wonder if there would ever come a day when he wouldn't have to spend so much time on the front lines battling Heartless and the remnants of Nobodies.

Landing his small gummy ship was now like second nature to him and he did so with the same ease that one puts into breathing. He hopped out and stretched as soon as his feet touched the ground; since he was by himself the ship was small and felt _very_ cramped sometimes. Also, no matter the world, he loved breathing in fresh air, not the recycled stuff that got circulated through the vent system.

"Hey, Sora!"

The brunette whipped around and instantly a grin spread onto his face. "Riku!" he cried and took off running toward his friend. Riku braced for impact, as he had done a million times before, and caught Sora in a hug that always sent them toppling over in laughter. Sora would pull away still smiling and exclaim, "It's great to see you again! I'm so glad you're safe!"

"C'mon Sora," Riku laughed as he rubbed his friend's head. "You know better than to worry about me; I always was bigger, faster and stronger then you."

"Psssh!" Sora sighed. "I think our score would tell a different story. What was the last count?"

"83,950 to 83,951 and I was winning of course."

"Were not!"

"Were too!"

"Prove it."

"Race you to the throne room?"

"You're on!"

In a flash the two were off the ground and running. This wasn't their island, which they hadn't returned to for years, but the castle of King Mickey had become like their new home and bore witness to many of these races. The servants now knew what the shouting of the two male Keybearers sounded like, and how to sidestep them as they went running past on the quickest route to the finish line. Donald was never quick enough, and would always shout angry and illegible strings of curses after them in their wake, which neither boy could hear over the cries of their apologies and laughter. But no matter how loud they got, there was one sound that Sora could always hear when he came crashing through the long stone hallways of his newest home and that was…

"Sora!"

"….Kairi…"

He stopped running, of course, because the world would stop moving whenever she was around. Stupidly, he stared at her and it didn't matter if he was a little kid or an adult, when she smiled he was six years old again and infatuated with her. Then she would run up to hug him and he'd grin and squeeze her back tightly, as if letting her go would mean he'd never see her again. The smell of the lily soap she used was never as warm to him if it wasn't coming from her neck where he always buried his face. No matter what other traditional things took place on his return trips to this castle, he was never _really_ home until Kairi was in his arms once again. "I've missed you so much," he whispered only for her to hear, then kissed her temple.

"Oh Sora," she'd whisper back, "I know. Me too."

"Ahem."

Rather reluctantly, the two would pull apart to look at their long time childhood friend sheepishly as he slowly shook his head at them. "Public displays of affection are still frowned upon, the last time I checked. You'll have to take it upstairs if this keeps heading where I think it's going."

"Riku!" Kairi chided in a mockingly shocked voice. "Never on the first date!"

"Yeah right," Riku said with a roll of his eyes and smirking know-it-all smile. "Your first date with Sora was when you guys were three."

"Fine, never on the first_ thousand_ dates," Kairi amended. "Better?"

"Heh, more like ten thousand and boy, do I feel bad for Sora then." He laughed and ducked as she took playful swipes at him, then started fending her off with ease to egg her on. Though Sora was reluctant to verbally admit it sometimes, Riku still was the bigger, stronger, and faster of the three.

"Aww, don't mind him Kairi," Sora said taking her hand and easing her away. "He's just jealous that we're together and he still hasn't found a girlfriend yet." He leaned in and nuzzled her nose with his own. Kairi giggled happily and gave him a peck.

"Yeah, that's my problem," Riku said with play sarcasm, rolling his eyes once more. He laced his fingers together and put his hands behind his head as he turned around and started walking away. "By the way, Sora," he called over his shoulder, "The score is now 83,952 to 83950 and, for the record, I _am_ in the lead."

"What? No you're not!"

"Am too."

"This race doesn't count! Kairi distracted me! You know I can't run a good race until I see her! That's not fair!"

Riku laughed. "All is fair in love and war, Sora. Every day is a new battle."

Kairi laughed as she moved along with the boys, swinging hers and Sora's' hand. "You two haven't changed at all, have you?"

"No Kairi, Riku's gotten taller," Sora said. "And at long last I've finally caught up to him!" He puffed himself up proudly and passed a hand over both of their head a couple times.

"I meant, personality wise, you silly goose." She tapped his nose when they stopped at the doors that lead into the throne room. "You're both still as competitive as you were when children. I can't believe you're both still keeping track of all your ridiculous scores."

"That's good though," Riku replied. "I like that some things will always be the same." He looked at them and gave a smile; a real, sincere smile that only graced his lips now when he was with them or the king. "It's nice to come home to knowing certain things will always be there for you to count on."

"Still," Sora chimed in. "I would like to see a little bit of change. Just in what we have to do day-to-day. It would be nice to be able to take a vacation from fighting Heartless and Nobodies all the time, wouldn't it? One that's longer then a day and somewhere that isn't necessarily here?"

"Be careful what you wish for, Sora," Riku warned as he turned back toward the doors.

"What do you mean?"

"The last thing I've ever wished for was to get off our island home; we all know what happened after I made that wish."

"But that was different," Kairi said. She laid her head against Riku's arm gently. "We were all destined to come here and fight the Darkness, Riku. It's not your fault, what happened is in the past now, and over."

Sora nodded. "That's right. And whatever lays ahead, we'll get through it because we have each other and we can always come back here; come back home."

Both of them hugged Riku from either side as he held his arms folded across his chest and sighed at the ceiling. "I guess…you guys are right," he said after a moment, but they didn't let go. "C'mon now," he gently shook them off, "We should be talking to the king about what we need to be doing next."

* * *

><p>The girl pushed her brown hair out of her face, for the seventeenth time that day and sighed exasperatedly. It was getting too long in the front again and while she wanted to cut it out of her eyes, she was torn between keeping the bangs short or growing them out once more. She loved having the wind roll in through the window of her car but with her hair in the in-between stage that it was, too short to tie back and too long to not hinder, she couldn't risk getting into an accident and seriously hurting herself and so kept the window firmly shut. That was just as well, in all actuality though, seeing as the weather outside was a sweltering 120 degrees and it wasn't even noon yet. Summer was an almost never ending thing in this world; the city that she was in hardly ever got below 75 degrees and always stayed balmy as ever.<p>

"I should've brought my swimsuit," she murmured to herself as she pulled up to yet another red light. "But nooo, because I had to warn myself of what would happen with that stupid, old, pervert…" The light turned green and she proceeded forward, counting the streets till she found the right turn she needed. Down the street, at the very end of the pavement, was where the journey for cars stopped and a large gated complex began. She parked her car at the curb of the street that ran the entire length of it like a moat and got out. The heat hit her with a slap to the face and she shielded her eyes from the disdainful glare of sun that quickly took a dislike to her. Grabbing her keys and purse from the still chilled inside of the car, momentarily wishing she could just get back in and never leave its air conditioned compartment, she locked the doors and closed it. It was a silly thing to do really but a force more of habit than anything else. Smiling fondly as she walked around the side of the vehicle, she found the little hatch that lifted up to conceal a tiny button. Pushing it, she exclaimed, "God I love Capsule Corp's inventions!" The car disappeared in a poof of smoke and a tiny little capsule was left in its place.

She pocketed the former car and stalked towards the front gate. Behind the bars she could see the large capsule house and smaller guest houses surrounding it. '_They've remodeled_,' she mused and rang the bell. _'I hope they don't have company over already…Now I wish I'd called ahead to be polite…_'

"Who is it?" came a voice on the speaker connected to the bell. It was a woman and the familiar tone of her voice made the girl smile nostalgically.

"Bulma, it's CoD."

"Who?"

For a moment her heart sank. '_It has been years_,' she told herself. '_You've got a lot of catching up to do, don't worry about it_.' She took a deep breath to steady her nerves and repeated, "It's CoD. You know, Child of the Dragon? You remember me, all the shenanigans I used to kidnap your boys into?" There was a silence on the other end, so she went on. "You know, I pretty much altered the entirety of the time line, like TWICE, and then there was the time I made you all into gangsta rapping homies, and then like-OH! Ashii Black and I-you remember her too, I'm sure-remember when we dunked Vegeta AND Goku into the Ranma pools? So they both turned into girls? And remember when Vegeta got his period like, the FIRST day? Oh! And the Jumping on the Bed series! C'mon! No way had you forgotten THAT insanity!"

"CoD?" Bulma's voice finally replied; CoD hoped it was a good reaction she was getting because she had a hard time reading into that. So she smiled as pleasantly as she could, hoping that would help. Then, "Oh My God! It IS You! Child! Where have you been? We haven't seen you in YEARS! Vegeta has been nothing short of ecstatic at the thought that you were DEAD! Come in, right away! We have soooo much to catch up on!" Then a buzzing sound and the gate opened for the girl whose smile widened in the pure relief she felt for not being shunned. Walking into the complex that was THE Capsule Corporation headquarters, despite the changes that had been done in recent years, felt like coming home after a long journey away in a far off land.

Bulma stood at the front door to the massive main house and waved her down. CoD ran to meet her and the two shared a moment of girly squeeing on the front step complete with the hugging and jumping and followed right after with the, "it's good to see you"s and the "you look so wonderful"s. Bulma dragged CoD in and wasted no time ordering the personal chief in her family's kitchen to whip them up some icy drinks. CoD took a moment to savor the feeling of standing in a place she had for so long called home, in a place that held so many cherished memories for her. This was the kitchen where she learned to cook massive amounts of food for starving Saiyans and how to clean large amounts of dishes once said Saiyans were fed and they never helped her. That was the couch she always tied Trunks to for any one of her girlfriends that would take him off her hands for her that week. There was the wall she once threw Vegeta through when he was being an especially pompous asshole toward her and needed to be reminded why she should be feared. And there was….a wall full of people reading her words and therefore clearly peeking into her life.

"Whoops!" she smiles at all of you. "Hey guys, sorry for the delay, I know I'm getting a little nostalgic here, but try to cut me a break, okay?" She put her hands together and presses them to her chest in a pleading way. "This was a big part of my childhood, and it was my refuge from a lot of not-so-fun stuff that happened around the same time, okay? But we'll be getting into the happy magical fun-times stuff soon, alright? Just bear with me. There IS madness to all my methods, okay?"

"Who are you talking to?" Bulma asked as she brought over the fruity drinks.

"The fourth wall," CoD replied nonchalantly. Because let's face it, Bulma had already caught her doing a lot worse. "You know just all the readers out there." She pointed with a smile at the area in which you are sitting now.

"No Way!" Bulma exclaimed and hurried over. The blue haired babe smiled as she peeked out at all of you, bending over like one does to talk to a young child and now you all can enjoy a nice show of booby fan service; she and CoD simply ignore the cries of revulsion from all the yaoi fangirls and fanboys out in the audience. "So you're really writing fanfiction again? Oh CoD, the boys are going to pee their pants when they hear about this!"

"Well, yes and no," CoD replied as she took the drink Bulma offered, more like shoved at her. The older, but still beautiful woman gave the younger girl a pout. "I'm trying to write fanfiction again, but it's not DragonballZ related, _exactly_, per se…." Light blue eyes narrowed at the girl now sipping as innocently as she could from her drink. "Well, you know how things go…kids grow up and they grow out of certain things, and then get interested in other stuff and…sometimes stuff needs a…a gentle _nudge_ in the right direction, that could be gotten from things that the once-kids-now-grown-ups knew about from childhood…saaaaay something like….dragonballs?" The writer battered her blue eyes in the sweetest of ways and smiled as widely as she could, shrugging her shoulders up to appear smaller and cuter.

"You know those charms never work on the one that taught them to you, don't you?" Bulma retorted flatly. But she smiled again as she straightened up. "Though it is nice to know that you still use the tricks I taught you when you were still too little to understand what they were for."

"And by golly doesn't it just drive all the boys wild now that I actually have BOOBS!"

The two females took a moment to laugh at this like it was the most hysterical thing in the whole world, effectively making ears bleed everywhere. They calmed down significantly when a gruff male voice barked, "Woman! What the hell is all that annoying racket about?"

"Vegeta!" Bulma clapped her hands excitedly and smiled in the most wicked of ways at the Saiyan Prince. "We have company! Guess who has decided to grace us with her presence after so many years away?" She placed her hands on CoD's shoulders and steered her closer to the disgruntled looking prince.

Vegeta cast his eyes up and down the girl before him and sneered as though he saw something truly repugnant about her. "Who is this?" he snapped irritated. "I've never seen this whelp before in my life! Woman! Why are you wasting my time with this cur?"

"As socially graceful as ever you are, Vegeta," CoD smiled.

"Do forgive me," Bulma said, faking mock exasperation. "He's gotten a lot harder to control since you went away; I do the best I can, but I just fear I'm not as perky as I was in my youth!"

"Oh Bulma!" CoD turned to her, playing along. "Dare not say that for it's not true! You're as beautiful as you were when you were young and just a spry, I'm sure! If there is no hope for you, then underdeveloped blossoms such as myself shall never bloom to b—"

"What are you numbskulls blathering about?" Vegeta interrupted. "I'm still waiting for an explanation as to why I'm not allowed to blast this dithering blunder head smucking up the décor of our living room into the next dimension!"

Bulma snapped into her angry mode. "Because She's A Guest, Vegeta! And You Know Full Well You _DON'T_ Blast Away Guests In the Living Room _BECAUSE_ It Smucks Up The Décor!"

"I'm Not Afraid Of You!" Vegeta retorted. "You And Your Kind Have Never Been As Terrifying Since The Day That Conniving, Egotistical, Manipulative, Little _WITCH_ With Her Magical Notebooks And Freaky Little Pens Took Off To Cosmos Only Knows _WHERE_, And By The _GODS_ I Hope She Contracted Some Horrible Flesh Eating Sexual Disease That Rotted Her Away From The Inside And She's Laying _DEAD_ Somewhere Far Away From Here Where We Shall _NEVER_ Speak Her Name Again!"

"Hello Vegeta, it's so nice to see you again too. I've been very well, thank you for asking. And how have you been in all the years I've been away?"

Vegeta turned to stare at CoD with a slightly disbelieving look on his face. His eye twitched momentarily and he slowly began to shake his head. "No…" he breathed and CoD began to nod at the same pace as his head tried to deny her existence away. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…"

"Oh yes, Vegeta, darling!" CoD said with a triumphant smile as she threw her arms open. "I'm back! I'm back! What a glorious day this is! I know! Rejoice! Sing! And dance! Be merry!" Behind her Bulma began cracking up.

"WHERE ARE YOUR HORNS AND TAIL?" Vegeta shouted.

"Har dee har har," CoD replied dryly.

"No, I mean it! You had HORNS! And a TAIL! Dragon features to go with the name you called yourself to all those horrible creatures like you! Befitting of one as vile and evil as yourself, but NONE THE LESS! Where Have You Hidden Your Ties To The Dark Lord?"

CoD sighed. "Vegeta, I'm nearly twenty-three years old now. Do you honestly expect me to be the same person I was when I was fourteen?"

"YES."

"Well, I'm not. So sorry to disappoint you. And for your information, a lot has changed over the years. I'm not even here now to torment you, at all. I just came to ask for a favor."

"NO. GET OUT DEMON!"

By now Bulma had recovered herself enough to swat Vegeta upside the head, earning herself a nasty glare that the expression "if looks could kill," was based off of but she chose to ignore it. "That's right; you mentioned something about the dragonballs. Did you need them for something kid?"

"Yes, I have some friends that I need to bring back to life," CoD said.

"I thought your kind didn't die?" Vegeta sneered.

"Yes Vegeta, that's very good!" CoD retorted like she was praising a young student in a classroom. "Fangirls don't die because we are indestructible! That's why you can NEVER escape from us and why NOTHING is safe from our corruptive grasps!"

"So then who are your…'_FRIENDS_' if they need to be wished back to life?"

CoD sighed loudly and exchanged a knowing glance with Bulma. "Well, alright Vegeta, you caught me. These people I need to wish back, it's true that they aren't really my friends. They were the next poor innocent victims on my list of minds I needed to break with my awesomely powerful writing skills in the realm of fanfiction, but since you're just so noble to have me inflict onto another the mental and emotional scars I have done onto you, I guess you leave me with no other choice theeeeen..."

"…..Then?" Vegeta cautiously prompted.

"Then to stay here and resume my once full time job harassing y-"

"WOMAN! Where Is That Dragon Radar? We Have A Dragonball Hunt To Go On! NOW! MOVE!"

* * *

><p>"You want us to WHAT?"<p>

It wasn't the reaction King Mickey was hoping to receive but it was one he could understand. "Look guys," Mickey said a timid tone in his voice that only sometimes snuck in. "I know this seems sudden, but I've talked it over with my most trusted advisors and we all think it's for the best."

"But the Darkness—"

"We have to fight—"

"And the Heartless—"

"Because who else will—"

"And everyone's heart—"

"Protect all the other worlds—"

"If they're swallowed—"

"And this is what I wanted—"

"Then whose gunna take care—"

"Hold on, hold on!" Mickey called over the riled voices of the two boys. He held up his hands to quiet them in a gentle way and let their protests die on their own. "Boys, I can't understand you when you yell over each other like that. So let's just talk calmly; I'll try to answer any questions you have."

"Calmly?" Riku cried. "You've already decided for us! You didn't even ask us! That would've been nice, you know. Before you go and make all these big life altering decisions _Behind Our Backs_!"

"Riku," Sora's voice became worried. "I'm upset too, but the king is right, we should talk calmly." He tried putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. Riku sighed exasperatedly, crossing his arms over his chest and turning slightly away from everyone in the room; an action Sora knew he always took when he didn't _want_ to listen to reason but _had_ resided himself to doing so anyways. He probably wasn't going to say much more, but Sora knew he was listening when he turned back to the king and said, "What about fighting the Darkness? Isn't that a little more important?"

"Well, that's just the thing Sora," the king replied. "You three have been fighting the Darkness for nearly 5 years now. You've closed the keyholes to a lot of worlds, protecting many of its citizens. The Organization has been disbanded for years. Don't ever think that any of you haven't done enough good in this lifetime, that's far from true. Now, it's just a lot of cleanup work. Haven't any of you noticed the fights with the Heartless or Nobodies getting easier and easier? None of you have even called for backup in, why, I can't even remember how long! I can handle fighting the Darkness by myself from here guys; you don't have to worry about that anymore."

"So you're getting rid of us," Riku snapped. "Just like that?"

"This isn't about getting rid of any of you," Mickey said, a little sternly. "It's about giving back what was taken from you when your destiny took you all away from your island home. You three missed out on so much because you had to grow up faster than your peers to deal with this. And now that things have slowed down, I think it's time you three were allowed to have a normal life again."

"How normal are we talking?" Sora asked. "When I got my Keyblade, I was pretty much told that the Darkness would always come after me. So I can't imagine how we'd really be able to put all this down."

"That's true," the king said. "And it's why we decided not to bind your powers."

"You Planned To Wh—"

"You Can't Just—"

"Booooys!" King Mickey waited for the two to fall silent again. "It was something we _considered_, but in the end we realized that was taking too much of a risk. We'd all rather air on the safe side of caution then make another mistake underestimating the Darkness again." Sora, Kairi and Riku exchanged glances at this. The event that Mickey was alluding to, as he often would when it had to come up, was one that he didn't like to talk directly about. Even just in passing, it left him with eyes glassed over in tears and a stare that the kids had come to realize was one where he was not looking at them but rather beyond them at something he always saw standing there; shadows of their past. They kept quiet as the king took a moment to collect his thoughts. "So yes, Sora is right; you can't expect your lives to ever be _completely_ normal again. That doesn't mean we don't want any of you to feel like you never can. You've each gotten very good at summoning spells, and your respected Keyblades can never be taken from you since they each come from the light in your hearts. That's why the Keyblades choose each of you. But as long as you hold onto them, physically, then yes, Darkness will always be able to find you and will seek you out."

"I don't care," Riku said. "Let it come. I won't stop fighting until all the Heartless and Nobodies are completely gone from every world."

Sora frowned at his best friend. "You can't keep fighting forever Riku."

"I didn't say I would," the older boy retorted. "I said I'd stop when the Darkness is gone."

Mickey shook his head. "There is Darkness in every heart, Riku." He reached out and gently took hold of the fair haired boy's hand. "There's a time and place for everything, and right now it is time for you to rest. A man _needs_ his rest, Riku."

"And what about you?" he replied. "When do _you_ rest? You've fought just as hard alongside us for as long as we've done this and even before that; No, Look At Me! How do you stand there and preach at me things that I don't see you practicing?"

"Riku, I've rested easy for years knowing that you three were growing up into magnificent Keybearers. Yes, I still worry for the safety of each of you; you can never ask me to stop worrying. But now that each of you have become so powerful and strong, courageous, honorable and noble, and as I've been unneeded by any of you more and more, it has given me a lot of time to think. And all I seem to think about is what would truly be best for you three and how much I want that for you. Maybe, I'm just becoming too paternal toward you three, but trust me when I say I've been around a lot longer than any of you have and I know a lot of things you don't yet. Things you won't get to learn if I keep you smothered in here." Mickey looked at Sora and Kairi, smiling warmly at them. "There's so much more to life then fighting the Darkness all the time. These two have found a little bit of that, but love wasn't meant to grow under these conditions. I know you're all comfortable here and in your roles as Keybearers. I'm not asking you to forgo that and believe me when I say it will still be here waiting for you when you come back."

"But what if we don't want to?" Riku pressed. "You can't force us to do something we DON'T want to do, right?" He looked back at Sora for support. The brunette looked uneasy.

"I think I would like it very much," Kairi spoke up for the first time since entering the throne room. The two boys that were her longest friends turned and looked at her. "I don't want to keep fighting Heartless forever, you guys. Once, when we were young, we wanted to travel and see all kinds of new worlds. Well, now we have and the more I see of other worlds the more I realize one simple thing: I always miss you both a lot when I'm out there fighting. I believe in the good that we're doing, locking the keyholes of worlds and fending off Heartless and Nobodies, but I've been wishing for a long time now that things could just go back to the way they were a long time ago." She took hold of Sora's hand and looked into his eyes. "I want to be near you again, and see you every day I wake up."

Sora blushed but nodded his agreement. "I know," he murmured to her. "My heart misses you too."

Riku sighed and turned away with a shake of his head. "Alright already," he said a little annoyed. He knew he was fighting a losing battle then.

"Riku," the king spoke to get the boy's attention back on him. "No one is going to _make_ you do anything you don't want to do." The previously angry aquamarine eyes softened a bit but turned away again.

"I need to think about it…"

* * *

><p>Only three hours later, because Vegeta sure as HELL wasn't going to dawdle on such an important mission as this, found CoD standing on the Son's front lawn with six of the seven yellow and stared spheres held in her arms and Vegeta angrily pounding on the front door. "KAKAROOOOT!" he yelled sternly. "Open This Door Before I Break It Down!"<p>

"Okay! Okay!" came a voice from the other side and soon enough the usual hero of the DragonBallZ realm opened his front door. "Vegeta, what's all this about? I thought it was still Saturday; don't we spar only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday?"

"Dragonball, Now!" was the only response the prince gave him.

"What? Whatta ya need those for?" Goku asked with an innocent tilt of his head. Then he noticed the young girl standing off to the side. "Hey there! I don't believe we've met. Vegeta, don't be rude, introduce your new frie—"

"By The Powers Of The Saiyan Race, Kakarot, _DO NOT_ Finish That Sentence!" Vegeta yelled. "She isn't a friend and she isn't new! You KNOW her, idiot! Now give me that damn dragonball you've got hiding in there!"

"Wha-? Nu-uhh!" Goku retorted. "This girl is new to me Vegeta and I want some answers. Like why do you need—?"

"It's _CHILD OF THE DRAGON_, You Clown!"

Goku looked hard at the girl standing quietly there to the side. She smiled and his face light up in a happy grin. "CoD!" he greeted and quickly grabbed her in a tight bear hug, which cracked her back and a couple of her ribs in the process. "It's been so long! Where Have You Been? We've all been worried sick!"

"Goku," she got out in light gasps, "you're choking me…I can't…bre...the…"

"As much as I would love to see you pop her head off like the corks to those bottles of wine that woman I live with insists on drinking each evening with dinner, you and I both know that's not enough to stop her from what she came here to do, Kakarot. Let her go and can you please try to FOCUS on what I'm telling you right now?"

"What? Oh!" Goku let go of CoD who gasped deeply and nearly toppled over from lack of sufficient air supply. Then the over powering Saiyan looked between her and Vegeta and nodded. "Oh, right. I see what's going on," he said, proceeding to take his shirt off. "Chichi! CoD came back and so now I'm gunna go have lots of sex with Vegeta, okay! I'll try to be home for dinner!" He smiled like this was an everyday thing while Vegeta buried his face in his hands at the shame he felt and CoD chuckled at his simple mind.

"She's Not Here To Write Any More Fanfiction About Us, You Idiot! She Just Needs To Borrow The Dragonballs And Then, Thank Our Lucky Stars, We'll Never See Her Again!"

"You wish," CoD smiled knowingly at Vegeta, who fought very hard to suppress the urge to let out a tiny whine at that.

"Aww, is that all?" Goku looked like the last puppy in a litter that no one had wanted. Vegeta didn't fight so hard against the urge to swat him upside the head.

"Well, yeah Goku," CoD said honestly. Her chest fell at the dejected look on Goku's face. "Look, it's nothing personal. I just grew into other things. I still love you guys. And I won't ever forget you; you'll both hold a dear place in my heart, forever!" At this, the younger Saiyan brightened while behind him the prince gagged. "But right now I need the last dragonball Goku. You still have the four-star ball, right?"

"Oh, of course!" Goku said. "I'll go get it; be right back." He disappeared back into the house and CoD and Vegeta moved more to the center of the lawn, where calling the dragon wouldn't endanger the house so much. Goku returned only moments later with the sphere in hand and handed it over to the girl. She set it down with the others and the balls began to glow. "Arise Shenron!" Suddenly the sky turned black and from the cluster of balls rabidly flashing on the lawn shot a bright golden yellow beam of light. Twisting and turning through the black backdrop the sky created, the light began to meld itself into the form of a giant dragon, far larger than any creature ever to walk the earth. The dragon still maintained a glow of its light but the intensity faded to a more easing appearance of emerald scales and blood ruby eyes.

When the dragon spoke, its deep voice reverberated in the very audience beholding it and filled them with a kind of awe, despite having witnessed the summoning of this particular dragon enough times for him to open with, "You have—Aww, fuck, it's just you guys."

"Heeeeey!" CoD cried out in disappointment while Goku waved happily behind her at the dragon. "That's not what you're supposed to open with! It's been YEARS since I last saw you Shenron! I will summon you over and over again until you greet me the right way; we can be here all night if we have to!"

"She'd do it too," Vegeta muttered to the fourth wall where the readers sat. "I really hope she gets this shit over with fast…"

"Oh, now don't you start with me young lady!" the eternal dragon drone out. "Your mother and I go way back and I can call her any time I want; is THAT what you want? I'll have you know, I'm not even supposed to BE HERE today! I don't in essence mind granting you wishes whenever you or your little friends over there call, but you do realize that all the wishing you do now is basically going to completely screw over your little boy toys in the GT timeline, right?"

"GT IS A LIE!" CoD called as loud as she could. It was not as impressively loud as the dragon hovering before her and she looked like a small temper tantrum throwing child to him, but she did it anyway because it's how she felt in her heart. "THEY MADE EVERYONE BUTT ASS UGLY AND ANYONE THEY COULDN'T DO THAT TO, LIKE PICCOLO, THEY MURDERED! THAT SECTION OF DRAGONBALL HISTORY IS FOUNDED ON LIES AND CANCER AND I REJECT IT AS REALITY TO SUBSTITUE MY OWN! FUCK THAT SPIN-OFF! FUCK IT IN THE ASS WITH SOMETHING HARD AND SANDPAPERY!"

"Vegeta," Goku said as he looked to the shorter Saiyan prince. "What is she talking about?"

"How do I know Kakarot?" Vegeta snapped in his usual irritated way. "Hey Baka!" CoD paused her rant long enough to look over at him. "What are you babbling about?"

"Nothing," the girl replied with a casual shrug. "Just the usual; new enemy coming up is gonna be unlike anything you've seen before and they're gonna pretty much kick your ass before you two do a strip tease to power up and wail on their ass." She looked at the readers. "And now, for all of you who don't follow DragonballZ and have no idea what the hell I'm doing in here if this is a Kingdom Hearts fanfic, I just explained the ENTIRE series of it in one simple sentence. Enjoy that."

"Alright, fine, fine," Shenron grumbled for the sake of getting this all over with as fast as possible. "You have awakened the eternal dragon and so you will be granted two wishes. Reflect upon what lies within your heart and choose wisely for I will only grant you two wishes. What is your desire?"

CoD smiled widely, looking not unlike any of the villains of the DragonBallZ world when they get something to go a little bit in their favor. Into the air she threw her hands and shouted, "I wish that the thirteen Nobodies of Organization XIII were to live again, complete with hearts of their very own so that they could be like regular humans, and that the very first thing I tell the whole lot of them is what they will follow through with to a tee!"

"Alrighty then," the Eternal Dragon said and its eyes began to glow a brighter red. Since wishing people back to life is about all the good guys in this series tend to do, the writer and two purebred Saiyans had enough sense to bring along various other forms of entertainment while the dragon set about its work. Goku took out a coloring book and crayons, Vegeta started playing on a Gameboy, and CoD whipped out a notebook to jot down ideas she had for this story in particular while pondering what mind fucks she was going to set before still ten of the disbanded Nobodies. They all looked up in surprise when the dragon, who had never let them down before, spoke up with, "Hey, there's uhhh….a hiccup in your wish…"

"What?" CoD said. Vegeta twitched involuntarily.

"Well, as I'm pulling up the, uh, souls of these Nobodies and purifying them, I happened to do a quick head count…you said there were only thirteen members?"

"Yeah…?"

"I've got fifteen here…what do you want me to do with the last two?"

"….Whut?" was CoD's only response.

"Baka, this other world you're plotting to run amuck in, how much about it do you know?"

"Enough!" CoD childishly replied to Vegeta's question.

"How far have you read?"

"Well, technically, you see, it's a _game_, so—"

"HOW FAR?"

"Alright! Geeze! Don't get snippy!" She positioned herself to look like she knew what she was saying when she answered, "Maybe, like, five percent."

"You have no idea what the fuck you're getting into, do you?"

"I know the characters! And most of how it all works! It's Disney! It's for children! It's not rocket science, Vegeta!" The prince scoffed at the girl's attempt to seem haughty.

"Oh, you're working with Mickey Mouse now?" Goku excitedly asked. "Are you going to ask him if you can pull Minnie's tail? Can me an Omma-man came with?"

"Quiet Kakarot!" Vegeta snapped at him. "And YOU!" He pointed a dramatic finger at CoD. "Who did you say these two extra….Nobodies, was it? Heh, sounds about right if you ask me…Who did you say they were if you know all these characters so well?"

"I didn't," CoD retorted without missing a beat, "because SOMEONE has to draw this all out a lot longer than it needs to be; I swear Vegeta, you actually miss—"

"I will kill you."

"I was just about to tell you, but since we've so rudely been ignoring Shenron, I think I let him explain." She turned to the hovering dragon, who was now playing tic-tac-toe with Goku and kicking the poor Sayian's butt, and with a slightly confused look asked, "Who did you say these other two Nobodies were?"

"I didn't," the dragon replied. With a dismissive wave of his claw, two girls poofed into existence with a tiny pop and flash of light; one with short black hair in the standard black Organization jacket, the other with longer blonde hair in a white dress. Both looked equally timid and freaked at their new surroundings.

"Oh! Naminè and Xion!" CoD said and the girls refocused on her. "What a minute, they're both Nobodies? I mean, Xion I get, but Naminè…?"

"Look kid, I'm just following your orders. You said the Nobody members of Organization 13. Now technically, there is a hell of a lot more Nobodies then that, but most of them don't fulfill the specifications you listed. These two do; do you want them or don't you?"

"I'll take them, yeah," CoD said. She shook away the startled expression she wore and quickly started jotting down notes in the notebook she carried. "Do I still get the original thirteen or do I have to make a second wish to keep these two as well?"

"I'll be nice," Shenron replied. "But only because this is probably the most amount of fresh air I've had in a while. Just remember this shit will come back to bite you all in the ass." Thirteen more flashes spread along the ground and the thirteen former organization members popped back into existence, each of them blinking in surprise and looking around in a slightly freaked out manner. "And for your second wish?" the dragon asked once this task was complete.

"Well, let's see here…."

* * *

><p>As he walked down the halls after being dismissed from the meeting with the king, Sora halted and frowned. Beside him Kairi too paused and looked at him with a puzzled look. "Did..." he looked to her, "did you feel something just now?"<p>

"Yeah, kinda," she replied. "Feels like something's missing?" He nodded.

"Yo! What are you two doing back there?" Riku called from ahead of them. "C'mon guys, it's dinner time! Can't your lovey-dovey-ness wait until after we've eaten?"

"Sorry Riku!" Sora called ahead of them. "Go save us a seat, we'll be right there, promise!" He tried his best to smile so as not to worry his friend, who was still partially agitated from the meeting prior. The silverette didn't return the gesture, but didn't argue further as he turned back and resumed walking to the grand hall to eat.

"Sora," Kairi said as she took his hand. "What do you think that feeling meant?"

"I don't know," Sora replied, placing his spare hand right over his chest where the feeling had occurred. He knew the feeling well, it was the same feeling he felt the few times he'd almost blacked out on the battlefields when he'd first started out fighting with Donald and Goofy. When a beautiful crystal formation sculpted into a heart would fall from his chest after a particularly hard beating he would feel that sensation. It had always knocked the wind from him as well. Yet he was able, in those early days, to inhale and keep fighting. Just long enough to instinctively grab the crystal and push it back in, then his vision would become clearer again and breathing wouldn't feel so hard. A couple times he'd notice a difference in the form of the heart crystal, but he'd never have time to think about that while in combat and once it was out of sight it was out of mind for him. When he discovered that he'd been holding Kairi's heart all along he'd naturally associated the differences in form to being his and hers, overlooking the fact that he'd once noticed a third form altogether. Now that thought came rushing back to him and he frowned deeper, wondering where, if he was right about this feeling, that other heart had gone and who did it once belong to in the first place if it wasn't his?

"Sora?"

He blinked and refocused on Kairi. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

"No," she replied. "I was just worried. You look a little upset."

Sora sighed and put on a smile for her. "It's nothing important Kairi," he told her. "Our hearts would know if something was really wrong and tell us. So don't worry, okay?"

"Okay," she said, lacing her hand in his. "Riku is waiting for us."

"Yeah," he said and resumed walking with her. But it took a lot of will to restrain himself from reaching up to rub his chest again. It hadn't hurt, hadn't left him feeling breathless or blurry eyed, just like something he'd never paid any mind had realized it was time to get up and leave and had done so without so much as saying goodbye to him. For the first time in years he thought of Axel and Demyx and the other Nobodies of the disbanded Organization 13. He couldn't imagine why something would happen with his Nobody self now, and if it had why he would still be able to exist. Even so, Nobodies were without hearts so why then would he feel anything if his dark self were to just get up and leave?

And why then would Kairi feel it too?

**End Chapter 1**


	3. CH2: Unpause, Restart, And Do Not Save

**Chapter 2: Unpause, Restart, And Do Not Save**

It was dark.

He honestly didn't expect to see anything else, but then, he didn't expect that he would ever see anything ever again. He didn't expect to feel anything again, not as himself anyway…was he still himself? He must be if he was still conscious to notice things like how dark it was and that his body was sprawled out on the ground. He must be to still feel the cold seeping up from the ground or the cough that compressed his chest for just a moment before the following gasp inflated it. He must still be….Terra.

He couldn't tell if his eyes were open or closed as he pulled his sprawled arms in and rolled over. The ground below him was slimy and gritty, and smelled of the rich scent of mineral earth. His hands quickly became coated in the substance that clung to his clothes, making them feel heavy.

"Wh…where…am I?"

In the darkness he could hear the faint echo of his voice, though he hadn't spoken that loudly. His limbs felt weak as he worked them, drawing blind hands over slick, uneven ground till they could run up the length of a rough wall. The wall reached higher then he could but he didn't stay standing for too long, scared in this black world. He could hear his breaths, heavy now not from physical labor but the labor that comes from working to keep fear at bay. Though it was likely he was in a wide open space, the darkness pressed on him from every side, and he felt like he was being swallowed whole.

"Aq-Aqua?" he called, voice shaking. "Ven? Ventus?" He was only met with the echo of his frightened voice. He needed light….

Holding his hands out before him, he called to the power of his Keyblade. When the familiar object did not show he felt his pulse quicken and called once more for it. Still, the weapon refused to materialize and without it, he couldn't channel any spells.

"AQUA!" he called out again. "VENTUS! ANSWER ME!" He thought he could hear something move. Listening, he could only hear silence. "Aqua?" he tried again. "Please be you…."

Then a terrifying thought overtook him and he froze. There could be Heartless out there. He seemed to become hyper aware of every sound that resonated around him then, convinced in the inability to see otherwise that he was being stalked. He really could feel his heart pounding away in his chest, a small comfort that it hadn't been ripped from him yet but surly it would if he stayed here. He had to move. He Had To Move.

In his panic he slipped in the slime and landed with a thud on his chest, the wind leaving him for a moment, yet fear spurred him to scramble forward and loudly he did so. But there was nowhere to go, nowhere that he could see. He felt along the ground, as he had done before, crawling till he nearly fell down a drop he wasn't sure would ever end. The resounding cry of surprise he let out when his arm slipped over the edge echoed back to him for a long time. To his left the wall of irregular stone still blocked him, and he was too afraid to see how far the chasm went out to his left.

"C'mon Terra," he whispered, willing himself not to freak out anymore then he already was. "Can't go that way, what do you do? Go around…go the other way…." Slowly, he backed up and turned around. And screamed.

What was that? Were those yellow eyes? Had he seen yellow eyes looking back at him? Just for a second? Just right there in his face?

A shaking hand he couldn't see slowly, hesitantly, reached out to feel that….nothing was there. He took a wide swipe, and only ended up hitting the wall, now to his right. Cursing against the pain that flared up in his palm as he held it, he sat and listened intently for sounds once more, and thought again that he could hear something moving. Was it toying with him?

"Move, Terra," he told himself. "Move forward, now." And he resumed crawling.

The rocky wall seemed to go on forever and not in a straight line either. There were stalactites and stalagmites that popped up in his way after a while, sometimes forming walls that he had to crawl round. It led him to another wall, this one padded by soft mud on a steep slant that veered up at a muddy, slippery angle. He looked up and could see the faintest hint of color, a dark midnight navy blue, dotted with the twinkling of tiny white starts.

He dug his hands into the slippery earth and made to crawl toward those faint glittering speckles, his whole body becoming coated with heavy, thick mud. If he moved too quickly the hold on the fragile ground would dissolve, leading him to slide back to the ground of the cave before he could even get another foothold in. If he climbed too slowly however, he would still sink faster than the progress he made. Three to four tries at it left him in a filthy state at the bottom of the wall staring up at those glittering fragments of hope, which had never seemed so impossible to reach until that very moment. He screamed his frustration then, slamming his fists against the sloppy slope, uncaring of the flecks of mud that rebounded from the collisions and spattered on his already dirty face. Tears eroded away some of the filth on his cheeks but it only served to dishearten him more.

Terra sat at the foot of the slope, in a puddle of the sticky mud he'd scraped off, and regretted the life choices he'd made to land him here. Funny how he hadn't really had a chance to do so at length before now, and it took the simple task of climbing out of a cave to make him break down. It wasn't that he hadn't regretted what he'd done before, but between being a know-it-all prick on a journey he shouldn't have taken to begin with and the final battle when he'd lost sight of himself, he hadn't really had a moment to stop and cry for the loss of his friends. He hadn't had a moment to really stop and comprehend what it was that he put them through. He had already begun to fade away between light and dark when Ventus was destroyed, when Aqua slipped away. He was aware, he'd been aware of it all, but it had felt like a faraway battle in the memory of a dream forgotten at the bottom of the toy box in childhood; he wanted to valiantly rush in to save the day, but he couldn't remember quite how the story was supposed to go anymore and with each moment a little more memory slipped away from him. Then he was alone and it was so dark, and he didn't want to be there anymore.

It was so dark in this cave. He didn't want to be here anymore.

* * *

><p>"What's this?"<p>

He pulled back from reaching under the bed when his hand found something and sat back to get a better look at it. Sora was holding what was a small munny bag meant to carry small trinkets of the currency, but it was nearly empty. Thinking there was some loose change inside, he pried open the little drawstring and turned the bag upside down over his open palm. What fell out wasn't munny, but a small, blue, glass marble. Sora frowned lightly at the trinket, pretty in its own right, and turned it over in his hand as he tried to place where he'd seen it before.

"You almost ready?"

The brunette turned and looked at Riku, leaning in the doorway to the bedroom King Mickey kept for him on the occasions when they would return from battle to stay overnight. His friend cast aquamarine eyes over the messy piles of things Sora hardly bothered to put to rights and tried not to make a show of disapproval. Sora knew better. He knew Riku well enough to know that the disapproval wasn't even over the mess, but rather the packing Sora was doing.

"Sorta," the younger male replied. "I keep finding all these things I hadn't seen in years. Look what I just found now." He held up the glass marble for his friend to see and it caught the light, sparkling a new as if lighted a flame. "I don't even remember where I got this from."

Riku reached out and took the orb in hand, carefully rolling it over in his palm while he looked at it. "That's the marble from the trophy won in the Struggle Tournament," he said and handed it back to Sora. To clear away the confused look he received he added, "Roxas competed and won. King Mickey gave it to you after he fused with you again."

"Oh," Sora said, looking down at the marble. Suddenly the memories came back, a bit hazy and dusty but there all the same. "Yeah, I remember now…" He remembered opening the bag and finding the marble for the first time and the reaction he'd had to it. He couldn't stop crying for an hour. It had scared Donald and Goofy, but it had startled him as well for he couldn't wholly understand why such a tiny thing would have such a strong pull over him. Eventually the crying had subdued, though he wouldn't let Donald take it away and stared at the marble for the rest of the train ride before they reached the place they had been going.

Sora rolled the marble over in his hand again, waiting expectantly for the wave of tears to consume him again, but no emotion came forth. "So…this was meant for Roxas, right?"

"Yeah, guess so," Riku replied.

"Do you think I should take it?" Sora asked.

His friend shrugged a shoulder and pointed out that he'd left it behind for so long that taking it now seemed silly. Sora countered with the story of how it had emotionally impacted him, but he didn't have a retort for when Riku pointed out it wasn't emotionally impacting him now. The younger of the two men was still contemplating it when his girlfriend walked through the door. "Hey," she said with a smile. "Dinner is almost ready. King Mickey wants us to eat with him tonight."

"Okay," Sora said agreeably. Riku seemed willing to continue to pout about the whole ordeal. "We'll be there in a little bit Kairi." He let her kiss him before she left, sensing as Sora had that the boys wanted another few minutes alone. "What are you taking with you?" the younger male asked his friend.

Riku sighed as he sat down and started pulling objects Sora had tossed into a pile. "Just bare basics, I guess," he replied. After a few days, and much begging from Sora and Kairi, Riku had finally agreed to go along with what the king wanted for his Keybearers, though he'd maintained an air of haughty dislike for it whenever the subject came up. Sora looked away to hide the surprised look he knew graced his face at his friend's words; he half expected Riku to back down at the very last moment and not go at all. Riku didn't seem to notice or care as he continued to look through the mess that was sprawled around Sora's room. He stopped shifting and frowned at one particular item. "Sora, this pair of underwear has rocket ships on it." He wiggled a finger through a hole in the elastic band.

Blushing, the brunette snatched the offending garment away. "You know we hardly ever have to stay here for more than a few days; I never got a chance to throw them away!"

"Never got a chance?" Riku smirked. "Or just never wanted to? C'mon Sora, I know how you are, overly sentimental about things that you'd long since out grown." He tsked with mock disapproval until the underwear was shot back into his face by the elastic. Quickly, Riku swiped them from his face and gave the grinning Sora a disbelieving look.

"83,951 to 83,952 and I'm winning," Sora said. He scrambled to his feet. "Race you to the mess hall, Riku! Loser is a rotten egg!" Laughing, Riku got up and chased, leaving the rest of the packing till after dinner.

* * *

><p>The first thing he was aware of was that he was breathing. Slowly, steadily, within and out. Inhale, exhale. Rhythmically his chest would rise, hover there for a moment, and then drop to rest. Then he'd repeat. This wasn't labored, it didn't hurt. It was just breathing, within and out. Inhale, exhale. Slowly, steadily, keeping him alive.<p>

_Rooooock a-bye baaabyyy, ooooon the tree toooop…_

The next thing he became aware of were the words filling his head. Slowly, steadily, and deliberate. They entered his head and bounced off the empty space devoid of thought, repeating themselves again and again in the hollowness of his mind. Echoing the syllables, the tone, the voice that spoke them without emotion. Slowly, steadily, deliberate. Within and out. Inhale, exhale.

_Wheeeeen the wind bloooooows, the cradle will roooock_…

Then came the sensation of wind, gentle and calm. Steadily. Pause. No…where was the voice? Was it a voice? Within and out, inhale, exhale, slowly, steadily, deliberate. The cool sensation of a gentle caress blowing over him. Did his breath stop? Or was it the wind that was breathing for him? Steady? Deliberate? Within and Out?

_Wheeeeen the branch breeeaaaks…_

Then a violent gust and he coughed tasting sand. Something covered his face, solid and warm. He couldn't breathe. The singing stopped and the wind blew harder. The voice seemed closer…was it a voice or his own mind playing something back to him? Out, within, exhale…he could barely hear the next part, trembling and scared…

_The cradle will faaaaall_…

Then the gust stopped, he was let go. Inhale, shakily. The voice paused for a bit longer. A sound was made like a moan and reverberated the cavern that was his head. The shaky words did not come from him; they came from a voice not within his memory. Out. Exhale. Slowly, he tried opening his eyes…

_And doooown will come baaabyyy_…

It all seemed so very bright. The very center of these blinding bright rays was hidden behind the silhouette of someone leaning over him and very close. It took a minute for his eyes to refocus, concentrating on yellow spots before him, the lightest things he could see in the shroud of dark shadow that enveloped him without going completely blind.

_Cradle and aaaaall_…

He moaned again, the sound leaving less vibration within his head this time and carrying out to the person in front of him. Steadily, he kept breathing, faintly aware of the breath gently rolling over his face in such close proximity to this shadow person. Then they smiled, or grimaced, it was hard to tell when their face was so dark…"Morning sleepy head. Are you really awake this time?" Their mouth formed the words and calmly washed them over his face.

He blinked, unsure of what these new words meant at first when they didn't fit the pattern of the others. So he moaned again and blinked some. Another sudden and violent gust of wind blew over his face and suddenly the dark face was closer to him and something heavy was laid on his face. Realizing he couldn't breathe and panicking, he started to struggle but was quickly held down. The hand removed itself from his nose and mouth to grip his body and he inhaled a coughing breathe of dirt and sand. "Wha—What's going on?" he cried confused. "Let Go Of Me!"

"Calm down or you'll get us killed!" the other hissed. The threat of death subdued him, but only physically. "Heh, so I guess you're really awake this time. Good, I was getting sick of looking after you…" The other body pulled away when the gust itself subsided and for the first time he could see the face more clearly. If he felt like he couldn't breathe before, this knocked the very wind from him.

"Va-ah," his voice was merely a whisper at first, then more steadily, "Vanitus."

"Ventus," the boy leaning back from him greeted, more calmly, and nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Look, before we get into any squabbles with one another, I want you to take a good hard look at your surroundings and tell me what you see. CARE-FUL-LY."

Ventus furrowed his brow at the other boy's words but slowly sat up and took a look around, inhaling deeply at the sight. It was an all-encompassing skyline as far as he could see. The sky was the most perfect shade of blue and faded in color about an inch before it melded with the lush green tops of a million forest trees. The air was so clean. It was a wonder to behold. He turned his head to look around at where exactly they would be, and found that the two of them were sitting on a tiny ledge just below the edge of a cliff. Below their little ledge was a straight drop of a good mile or so, where the ground couldn't be seen through the thicket of trees. The ledge itself was big enough to hold them both comfortably, but there was no way to put a lot of space between the two of them which made it seem less cozy. Ventus turned a slightly frowning face back toward Vanitus. "Where are we?"

"Santa's workshop," the dark haired boy shot at him with little more than a glance out of the corner of his eye. He turned more fully when the blond scoffed and replied, "No we aren't because I've been there before."

"Oh, you can take it now and dish it back, how quaint." Golden eyes ladled themselves and the acquiring lips smirked in amusement. "On a more serious note, however, I do not know where we are. I woke up on this cliff with you in tow and have been stuck here ever since."

"Can't you teleport?"

"When I say stuck here, I don't mean I just sat down and twiddled my thumbs _waiting_ for you to wake up. I've already tried that. And any other trick that Darkness gave me. Nothing worked."

"Ahhh, did being the bad guy not pay off like you expected it to? Poor baby."

"Alright smartass, let's see you do something amazing with your wonderful powers of light."

Ventus smiled a little smugly. "Alright then," he replied, cockily sure he could still do what the other could not. He summoned his Keyblade and…

No…wait….He summoned his Keyblade! And—

Ventus started at his empty hands. Why wasn't his Keyblade inside them already? He tried again, still nothing. Vanitus' lowly chuckles reached them and he rounded on the boy. He was about to say something, but the dark way the other boy's laughter was bubbling over unnerved him a bit. "Oh this is just wonderful," the raven giggled. He rocked a little and his laughter started to subside. "WE'RE FUCKING STUCK HEEEREEEEE!" Ventus jolted at the intense scream and a flock of birds scattered into the sky below them. The darker sighed and turned away, shaking his head slightly.

Ventus wrapped his arms around him in a hug. This was unnerving. Sitting on a tiny cliff with the one person in the whole world he hated being around with no way out. He willed himself not to cry or ventilate too loudly so that Vanitus wouldn't know how much fear the mere realization of that thought instilled in him. "Well," he said as calmly as he could. "We-well…let's th-think positively about this…We'll be o-okay…" Vanitus scoffed at these words, but Ventus pressed on. "I mean, someone will find us and they'll get help and help us…not…be stuck here anymore…"

"Riiiight," Vanitas replied, still not looking at the boy he was stuck with. "Because that's exactly what's going to happen to us."

"Well, what do you think is going to happen?" Ventus shot at him, a little angry. When golden orbs snapped around to glare at him he almost regretted it. Almost.

"You want to know what I _know_ is going to happen to us? We're going to sit here and wait for someone to find us, because that's about all we _can_ do. Only NO ONE is going to come because NO ONE is looking for us. Neither of us knows what world we're in and even if we did, we don't know if we know that world or anyone in it, therefore we can't be sure anyone knows we're here and therefore it is safe to say that there is no search and rescue team under way for us. Furthermore, as I've been awake a lot longer then you, let me clue you in on a little secret; what you see out there before you—" He indicated the overgrown forest below them. "—is probably all that you would see up there over that cliff. I have been listening intently for the last two hours and I can honestly tell you that I have heard a whole lot of nature, but nothing at all that sounds like other humans or civilization. Birds, yes. Bears, maybe. But no vehicles, no voices, nothing that's going to help us climb up over that cliff. So! Unless you have some magical princess powers to get cute little fuzzy woodland creatures to help us," Vanitus paused to give Ventus a glance over. "Good luck on that it's all I can say, we're pretty much FUCKED Venny-boy. We're going to sit here until we die. Die of starvation or thirst, die from jumping in desperation or being shoved because we can't stand each other, I'm not sure. But we will die. Here. Together. Because there is No. Way. Out."

Now he regretted it. Ventus squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his lips together. He held tighter to himself and forced air to enter and exit him slowly and deeply. His back leaned against the cliff wall and he lowered himself into a sitting position, fighting not to lose it altogether. Vanitus was right; there was no hope for them. A light nudge on his temple prompted him to look up through glassy eyes at the somber looking boy standing over him now. "Don't cry," he said plainly. Ventus took a swing at him, angrily.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Vanitus stepped back as far as he could, which was not out of Ventus' reach. "Hold on! Listen To Me!" He held his hands before him to fend off any more attacks, which hesitantly halted. For a tense moment they stared each other down, Ventus eventually being the first one to slowly lower his fist. "I meant, let's not overact," Vanitus told him. "We're stuck here…so let's just…agree not to kill each other while we are?"

The blond wiped at the moister collecting under his eyes. "Why?" he asked.

"Weeeeeell," Vanitas stated, like he was stalling for a bit of time. "The way I see it, we have two options; stay here and slowly die, or jump possibly breaking one or several bones in the landing; therefore incapacitating us and leaving us to die slowly and painfully. Provided some animal doesn't come attack us while we're still alive." He sighed looking at the forest below. "Not being a particular fan of pain upon myself, I think I like the option of staying here the best and need to be a little more deprived of basic needs before I try anything reckless, like trying to jump that."

"We could try going up," Ventus said, looking up behind him. "If one of us boosts the other, they might be able to reach the edge and pull themselves up." Golden orbs landed on him in an unreadable expression. "Then, you know, maybe they could find a vine to pull the other up."

"You honestly trust me to not just leave you here?"

"Well, I did, but since you brought that up now I'm chiding myself for thinking such a foolish thing."

"Well stop that and get up." Ventus looked at the other, confused by these words. "I've been thinking the same thing since I realized we could be stuck here. I just wanted you to be the one to propose that idea because I didn't want to fight about it with you. Get up; I'm not going to tell you again."

Ventus stood back up and almost started panicking when Vanitus grabbed him around his waist. "Wa-wait!" he cried. "What are you doing?"

"Boosting you to get us out of here, what does it look like I'm doing, idiot?"

"You trust me? I thought you hated me!"

"I don't. And I do. But if I have to choose between trusting you and dying, I think I'll go ahead and try to trust you. At least it does something, right? Now, quit your squirming."

"I promise."

Vanitus sighed and dropped the fidgeting boy the few inches he'd been barely able to lift him. The thud on their ledge made small blocks of the edge crumble away, though not enough to significantly reduce the size. It was then that Ventus noticed the cliff itself was made of crumbling rock not necessarily made for climbing. This also explained the gusts of sandy wind that picked up every once and awhile. Now Vanitus was pressed up against him and in his face, glaring in an irate way. "Promise what?" he said.

Ventus' blue eyes locked with gold and held his gaze. "I promise not to leave you here," he stated calmly. "If I get up there and can escape. I promise I'll get you out of here too. Okay?"

"Good to know," Vanitus replied in a tone that clearly told Ventus he already assumed this would be the case between them. Still, the blond felt it was good faith to have it said. Now at least he had his word to rely on. "Turn around," Vanitus said and the blond looked confusedly at him. "You'll be able to climb better if you're facing the wall here."

"O-oh," he said and quickly did so, ignoring that he felt like an idiot for not realizing this sooner. He felt hands glide up and down his sides for a moment, hesitantly brushing around his hips as the raven muttered things under his breath. "What are you—"

"Okay," Vanitus cut him off as his body seemed to disappear from behind Ventus. "I'm going to push you up by your feet, because that will give you the most height and it looks like we can use all that we can get. He pushed his knees between Ventus' ankles and tapped at them in turn to get the boy to step onto them, then he gripped the ankles tightly in his hands. "We're doing this in one swift motion, so don't pussy out. I'm going to push you all the way above me, and if you fuck up, you die, got it?"

"No pressure," Ventus said, steeling himself. As soon as he felt Vanitus lift, he scrambled up with his hands to keep them balanced and headed for the top. Surprisingly, their combined heights did get him high enough to peek over the edge, but he was still too short to pull himself over. "Okay, okay I can see over the top here…"

"Yeah?" Vanitus called up, strain evident in his voice.

"Yeah, but I don't think I can get up!" Ventus scrambled at the ground, which was loose sand with no foliage or significant grab holes for him. He lacked the strength in his upper body to push up and clawing at the dirt didn't help.

"Well—Try—Harder!"

"It's nothing but loose gravel!" Then he was nearly jerked back when Vanitus' strength gave out under him. He dug in to stay up, but the lack of support underneath is what brought him sliding back down. Vanitus caught him from falling off the edge and they clung to each other for a moment while they waited to see of the ledge would also give out. It didn't, but again it shrunk. The raven let go first, muttering curses under his breath and turning away. Ventus pretended he didn't see him trying to hide the tears. "We're gonna be okay," he said.

"How do you figure?"

"I just do. I choose to, okay? And hey, I meant what I said about not leaving you. Whatever happens now, we're in this together, okay?" Ventus smiled lightly at the boy peeking over his shoulder at him. He held out his hand.

"Do whatever you want," Vanitus replied. He turned away again and silence fell between them. Ventus chose not to acknowledge the hopelessness in Vanitus' voice when he muttered, "we're going to die here…."

* * *

><p>"Are we there yet?"<p>

Xemnas twitched almost violently enough to veer the minivan off the road and into the ditch running alongside it. The words that had been asked had been done so periodically over the last three days that he was about ready to pull over and set an example with the body of the next person to ask them. The problem was, only one of his former underlings was even bothering to utter them at all anymore and that was Demyx, the lazy bastard. That, and, his newly acquired heart stopped him from inflecting any seriously lasting damage on another with sudden pangs of guilt if he so much as threw a punch. It was hard to say if Demyx was just stupid, because all of the other former Nobodies seemed to pick right up on Xemnas' sporadic twitching every single time the phrase was uttered and had taken to biting their own tongues about the matter, or if the blond was just testing to see how much prompting it would take for their superior to lose his heart again, revert to Darkness and slaughter the freeloader sitting in the seat directly behind him. Either way, he played the ignorance is bliss card well.

"No, Demyx," Xemnas replied through clenched teeth, "We. Are. _NOT_. There. Yeeeeeet!"

"How much longer?" the follow up question instantly replied.

A hissing sigh retorted. Most of the other passengers shifted uncomfortably.

"Two more days," Axel said. "Give or take. Or possibly three more at the rate this is going."

"How you figure?" Demyx asked as he looked over the seat at Axel.

"REST ROOM STOP!" Xemnas called and veered dramatically off the side of the road when the exit came up. Demyx gave his usual surprised scream and everyone braced so as not to go flying out of their seats. The leader pulled the car into the parking lot and quickly shut the engine off. "You all have 45 minutes! Get it out of your system!" he barked then unbuckled himself and jumped from the car. Immediately pulling up next to him, and barely missing running him over, was another minivan. Xemnas sighed and waited for Xigbar to get out and approach him.

"What The Hell?" the second driver yelled as he came around to get in Xemnas' face. "You've told me time and time again not to drive recklessly and here you are kreening off the side of the road just any old time you feel like?" He waved at their surroundings. "A little warning would be nice! Maybe something like a turn signal at least!"

"Can you take Demyx?" Xemnas interjected.

"Take him…where?"

"In your car! Just take him! Get him away from me!"

"But…my car is full—"

"I know! Just…he's driving me crazy! I can't put up with this—"

As the argument continued between them, the others also piled out of the vehicles they'd been packed away in. Saix, being the designated navigator of Xemnas' car, approached the heated debate while Xaldin herded the others off toward the rest stop facilities where the yelling wasn't so loud.

"That's how I figure," Axel said to Demyx as he walked along with Roxas.

"Why do we have to dooo thiiis?" Demyx whined, lacing his hands behind his head. Axel was about to retort when the blond suddenly perked up, "Ooooh! Ice cream!" He darted toward a vending machine and Axel sighed with a shake of his head.

In the six days that they'd been given this new existence, and a few other things in the process, they'd all struggled to come to terms with what was happening to them in their own ways. A strange girl they still knew nothing about had ripped them away from the dreamless sleep of peaceful oblivion and forced them into a situation they all promptly realized hadn't been given quite enough thought when tidal waves of real emotions temporarily crippled each of them. After the 12 hour cry fest, she'd systematically gone down the line, starting with Xemnas, and stripped them of their Organization jackets to redress them in what she called "real" clothes. This mostly consisted of t-shirts and jeans, though there was an electrifying throw down between this strange girl and Larxene over getting the latter into a sundress; this fight alone is what perked up most of the former Nobodies. Then she fed them, then she coddled them, then she shoved each of them into two cars and told them if they ever wanted to see their precious black jackets again they'd get going on the road trip she had mapped out for them and enroll in the college they would find at the final destination, and then she laughed manically as she ran off into the night. Surprisingly, when she did this each of them felt compelled to obey her, though none of them could understand or explain why. None of them had seen her since. A man named Vegeta had just patted them each on the shoulder, and told them, "You poor bastards. Good luck. Now get the fuck out of my house."

There were a few of the Organization that seemed to cope better than the others. Apparently Larxene was going to be just as much of a bitch in a normal human body as she was in her Nobody form. Luxord was forcing himself to pretend that nothing happened at all, that he literally just woke up with strangers he somehow magically already knew the names of. Demyx, being the laziest and having done the least amount of actual damage overall, just came to terms quicker than most of the others, though they were still wondering if there just wasn't much room in his head to be deep about anything. Xemnas seemed to cope best by taking charge and the others let him because they needed _someone_ to guide them. He ordered them to simply put away any negative emotions as they all made this trek across the country together. Then everyone simply stared at each other and pondered what the hell they were getting themselves into.

The only one not along for the ride, despite having come back into existence just the same as any of the rest of them, was Naminè. She'd shied away from seeing her old captors and hid behind the form of Goku, who made a point of letting Xemnas know that he wouldn't be forcing the girl to go along with them if she didn't want to. After much hemming and hawing about the matter, the writer reluctantly agreed to let Goku take her to the final destination via the nimbus cloud, and no one had seen the two since.

In any event, things were a little rocky. Tempters were fraying from being cramped in such close quarters the last couple of days. They'd only been given a small amount of money to keep them all fed, so they resorted to sleeping in the car when everyone was too tired to stay awake and washing up in rest stops the following morning. For whatever God forsaken reason he had, for he wasn't used to having to explain his plans in detail nor did anyone feel especially compelled to ask with Demyx already riling him into near murderous rages, Xemnas was refusing to let anyone else drive the vehicle he was in charge of. Xigbar only drove the other one because the writer believed he was the second in command in the Organization and had handed him the keys before anyone could tackle her to the ground and tell her NO. When the others realized what she had done, there was a scramble to get into the car that Xemnas would be driving, which ended with said leader trying to wrestle the car keys from Xigbar, but former Number Two of the Organization fought childishly until he got his way, mostly. In order to get anyone else to ride in the car with him Xaldin called shotgun indefinitely to check the blind spots and force Xigbar to relinquish the wheel to him when darkness fell for fear of the visually handicapped would-be assassin somehow crashing and getting them all killed. In actuality, it was better they had pulled off just then, because the sun was getting ready to set soon.

Axel rubbed Roxas' back as they sat at one of the concrete benches. He was beginning to worry about the young blond not saying anything since they got back. Of all the Organization, he was the only one who hadn't cried about anything. It seemed like he'd simply reverted back to the zombie-like phase every one of them had breezed through when they first became aware of themselves as Nobodies. Axel was currently resisting the urge to pin Roxas to the ground and press an ear against the boy's chest to see if perhaps there wasn't some sort of mix up or mistake made when they each got a heart. By now even Lexaeus had said more words then him.

"How are you holding up, Roxie?" Axel asked, trying to prompt a response from him. It took the blond a moment to look up at the red head, who smiled hopefully, but the only response he got was a blink and slight shrug before the blonde looked away again. Xion, who'd been lingering off to the side, sat down beside the smaller male with a gentle _plop_ and hesitantly watched him from the corner of her eye.

Then there was suddenly three bars of ice cream shoved into their faces and with startled expressions the three looked up to see Demyx standing over them. "Xaldin says I have to share," he stated, and waved the packaged bars to show what he meant. "So Sea Salt is your guy's favorites, right? Eat up!" He smiled at them as two of three took the offered treats. "C'mon Roxas, it's good for you!"

The young blond shook his head.

"Axel, is Roxas stupid?" Demyx asked. He was met with a slight glare of green eyes, but nothing that would smite.

"No, Roxas isn't stupid," the red head replied.

"Then why won't he say anything?"

Axel caught on then, realizing Demyx was trying to help in his non-committal Demyx way. "I'm not sure. It's hard to know when he won't talk, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Demyx said. "Is your jaw broken Roxas? Does it hurt to talk?" He was answered again with a shake of blonde spikes. "Then take the ice cream! It's not gunna kill ya!" He poked the young man with the bar over and over. "C'mon! It'll melt if you don't eat it! Then we wasted seventy-five cents! And you get to tell that to Xaldin, which means you'll have to talk so start practicing!"

The bar was ripped from his hand then, tore away from its silicone wrappings which were thrown on the ground, and shoved nearly halfway into Roxas' little mouth. The dark blue eyes of the youth glared up a little more fiercely at the taller blonde still halfway grinning down at him. With a large chunk of the frozen treat sliding down his throat, a hoarse voice asked, "Happy?"

"That's the feisty Roxas we know and love!" Demyx cooed, then scampered off before harm could befall him.

Axel and Xion opened their bars more calmly and for a short while it felt like they were reliving the old Nobody days again, sans a giant clock tower with a gorgeous view of a sunset substituted instead with the view of Demyx running around trying to give every one ice cream from the pile in his arms. It was slightly more amusing to watch. Axel's consumption was interrupted when he noticed Roxas leaning forward, nearly doubled over on himself, and shaking. "Shit, Roxas," the red head said as he pulled out his own popsicle and reached around to comfort the boy. Xion had already beaten him there and was cooing soft nothings in his ear. "Roxas, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," the boy said a little suddenly. He straightened up and wiped at his face, harshly brushing away the moister that was collecting on his cheeks. "I'm fine, it's nothing."

"Roxas," Xion said gently. "It's okay to cry, you know. We all did when we…" she glanced at the other former Nobodies, "Reawakened."

"It's nothing," the boy said more firmly. Axel opened his mouth to argue a point, but a loud whistle pushed it aside.

"We're heading out!" Saix called. "Everyone get in! No Demyx, you're riding with Xaldin now."

"Why?" the blond asked.

"That's exactly why," Xemnas muttered darkly as he climbed back into his own vehicle. "XIGBAR! Stop screwing around and give Xaldin those car keys!" Slowly the others gathered around and climbed into either of the mini vans they were caravanning in and the reason for Roxas' slight emotional plight went overlooked, for the moment.

* * *

><p>Terra growled in determination as he gripped the ground in fistfuls and worked his steady way forward. He wasn't sure how many times he'd gotten this close to the opening of the cave before slipping back by now, but it didn't matter. He was tired of sitting still. He was going to get out of this hell hole of darkness even if it was the very last thing he ever did, god damn it. Above him the sky had begun to lighten with the oncoming day and even though he knew it was still a while till sunrise, the growing light had given him hope.<p>

His hands found their way into a tangle of roots and he gripped onto them as though his very life depended on it, pulling himself ever slowly more upward with every inch he could push under him. The roots lead up to a tree, and tired aching fingers clawed at it till he was more than halfway out of the cave. The ground was still muddy and now he could see where a very short way over there was a river running down the side of a mountain and a waterfall that pooled into an oasis. The spray from the water collected near the cave entrance, making the dirt slick. The gnarled tree he held onto was folded into the rocks, looking like it alone had held this entrance open for him.

Terra finished crawling out of the cave, not once wanting to go and experience that again. As the sun came up he took a look at himself as best he could, realizing he wasn't as bad off as he originally thought. Filthy, bleeding in some areas, and more tired then he'd ever thought he could be, but still in one piece. He could hardly believe it.

The water felt good and soothing against his skin as he washed away the grim on his arms that he'd been covered in. He splashed water over his face, and scooped handful after handful to his mouth to quench the thirst he hadn't realized was building up till he realized how good and clean and fresh water was. He stripped of his clothes and rinsed them piece by piece in the running stream, the current not too strong to sweep him away. The gnarled tree extended many stripped, thick branches and he laid his clothes out to dry over them before returning to rinse himself clean under the waterfall. There was a rock on the opposite side of the bank and he crossed the pool to climb up and sit on it, waiting for his clothes to dry and collecting his thoughts.

Aqua and Ventus hadn't responded to him in the cave. The chance of them having been there seemed slim, but he'd been unable to confirm how true this thought was as he'd been blind. He hated the thought of walking away from this cave if they were still in there somehow, but he didn't want to risk going back down to look for them and getting stuck again. He would have to go for help at least.

But somehow the thought of walking away didn't scare him at all. In fact, he nearly felt compelled to do so. He wanted to see Aqua and Ventus again, it felt like an obsessive need, but he was absolutely repelled by the cave. Then logically, he shouldn't go down there again, he reasoned and that was the end of it.

It took a while for his clothes to dry enough to a tolerable dampness, time which he spent sunbathing and working out how exactly he was to go about locating his friends or hell just what world was he in now. After a short while with no answers exactly present he waded back across the pool, put his clothes back on and decided to follow the stream along in hopes that it would at least get him to civilization.

* * *

><p>"Is this everything?" Goofy asked. "You sure you don't want to take more?"<p>

"Yeah," Riku replied, setting the larger of the two suitcases down. "King Mickey said he took the liberty of finding up a place that already came furbished, so I don't see why I'd need anything more than clothes and some personal effects."

"Gawsh, Kairi packed nearly everything but the kitchen sink," the captain of the guard said, turning to look at the almost full cargo compartment. "And Sora was hardly any better."

"Hey, a girl has got needs, okay?" Kairi said leaning out an open window of the gummy ship they would be taking. She smiled and then disappeared inside once more, shutting the window behind her.

"Just between you and me, Goofy," Riku said, helping him hoist his luggage in what little space was left for it "I don't intend to stay for very long. So I see very little point dragging out so much of my stuff, especially stuff I've learned to do without for so long anyway, if I'm just going to be moving it all back anyway."

"You seem awfully sure of that Riku."

"I talked with the king. He agreed to let me come back and resume my Keybearer duties if I don't like this school business. That's only four months. I highly doubt anything is going to come along to hold my attention so captive that I'd want to stay there in four months. But please don't tell Sora or Kairi; I don't want it to weigh on their minds. They were so thrilled at the idea of the tree of us being together again." Riku stopped outside the door to the gummi ship and sighed. "Even if I do intend to leave them again in such a short time, I can't deny that I want it to be the best four months we spend together."

A white gloved hand rested itself on his shoulder and the dopey dog chuckled a bit. "Well, you just remember not to worry about it so much either and you've got yourself a deal, alright? A-Huck." He opened the door and climbed up into the cockpit, leaving Riku to turn and look once more at the castle that had been his wayward home for more than a few years now. The queen and her lady in waiting stood by the drawbridge to wave them off and he wiggled his fingers at them in parting as well.

"C'mon Riku!" Sora whined as he pulled on the shoulder fabric of his friend's shirt. "Quit dawdling and let's go! Donald is getting worked up!"

"I am not!" the duck rasped from the front seat. "Sora, sit down and buckle up! I shouldn't have to keep telling you that!"

The silverette climbed into the cockpit as well, taking care to firmly shut and lock the door behind him before he sat down in one of the seats in back with his two friends. "Big smile," he whispered as Donald began the launch sequence that started up the gummi ship. "Like you mean it..." Though in actuality the grins on his friend's faces were probably big enough to power the ship there and back a few times over.

* * *

><p>"Aqua, Aqua!"<p>

She moaned and rolled her head to the side, then back to center as it got wet. Groggily, she opened her eyes. They came in to focus slowly, but when she could see Terra leaning over her they snapped open. "Oh god," she breathed. Then Terra smiled and grabbed hold of her; she screamed and tried to push him off.

"Aqua! Aqua, calm down!" the older boy sat back as his friend struggled against him. He let her go to show he meant no harm and resisted the urge to grab hold of her again when she scrambled to her shaky feet and put distance between them. "Aqua, it's me! Terra!"

"Leave Me Alooone!" she screeched at him. He held off as she stumbled around, hyperventilating and blind with tears washing over her face. "The Terra I Know is Dead! He's Gone! They—they're bo…." She sobbed and dropped to her knees, splashing in the river she didn't seem to notice she was standing in the middle of. "Both…gone…" She curled up into a ball and started openly crying. From head to foot she was soaked now and the trembles that ran over her body were hard to determine if the source was from cold or crying. Terra approached very slowly and tried to touch her again. She pulled away. "What Do You WANT From Meee? You Took Everything That Mattered! Go Away! Just…Go! Away!" Her crying deepened.

He dropped beside her and hugged her again, this time not letting her go even when she tried to resist. "Aqua, it's me," he whispered against her. "It's Terra, I'm back…shhh, don't cry, it's me…I'm back…" She kept trying to fight him for a while longer, and he held her pinned against him so she couldn't. She wept and begged him to let her go but Terra held on determined to get through to her. Eventually the soothing words began to reach past the trauma and she tearfully looked up at his pain drawn face.

"Teh-Terra?" she murmured. She felt the air leave her and she grabbed onto him, like he would disappear at any moment and slip through her fingers again. "Oh God, Terra? Terra! Oh My God!" She had started crying again, but at least now she wasn't trying to push him away and for that Terra was so glad. He could've held on to her forever like that, but suddenly she pushed away to look at him. "Ventus?" she questioned. He tried to take her face in his hands to calm her down, but she pushed away again and stood up, more firmly this time. "VEEEENTUUUUUUS!" she screamed to the woods surrounding them. "VEEEEEEEEEENTUUUUUUUUUS!"

It's not that he didn't understand her reaction. After everything she had been through, this was probably the best way she could cope right now. To stand screaming in the middle of a stream and be a little irrational. Goodness knows he needed a moment when he came to over three hours ago. But this self-fueling panic had to be killed before she started going off a deep end. "AQUA!" he shouted over her cries. She whirled and he fought to keep his face neutral, for her sake. "Calm down. We're not going to find him like this."

"Where is he?" she asked, sounding defeated. New tears were welling up in her eyes, but now she was fighting to listen to his advice. "Terra, where is he?"

The brunette pulled her close for another hug. "I don't know," he told her honestly. "But you're here and I'm here, so he must be as well. Don't worry. We'll find him."

She wrapped her arms around him and drew her strength from his frame. After a few moments she finally seemed to be leveling out to her old self. She was still visibly shaken, but she was more calm now and that was a very good thing. "What do we do?" she said looking up at him.

"We walk." Holding on to only her hand, Terra led her from the stream. It wasn't very wide or deep, but it was keeping them wet and he wasn't sure how long it would be before night fell or how cold it would get once it was. "I've been following this stream and it led me to you. So maybe, if we keep walking along it, we'll find Ventus. Okay?" She nodded. It was all they could manage.

* * *

><p>Zexion looked at the book choices he had to choose from; the entire series of <em>Twilight<em>, written by Stephanie Myer, _The Ropemaker_, by Peter Dickenson, _Winnie the Pooh_, by AA Milne, _Catcher in the Rye_, by JD Salinger, or a jump-up-and-scream-at-you orange one that only said _The Little Orange Book_ in bold black letters, with no author and no description to be found anywhere on its bright paperback covers. Interest piqued, Zexion picked up the little orange book and began to flip through the pages. A blush crept over his face at a passage about five pages in, and at another only a few pages after that. He looked at his other choices once more and sighed. Aside from magazines about fishing, cars and Cosmo, this seemed the best choice, though a bit dirty. He'd already read _Catcher in the Rye_ though so dirty he could handle. He'd also had the slight displeasure of reading both the _Ropemaker_ and the first _Twilight_ book, both of which left him feeling like his IQ had actually dropped a few points during that time, but he always made a point of never judging a book by its cover, or what others were saying about it, soooo…

_The Little Orange Book_ didn't have a lot to say on the outside, and he'd never before heard of it from anyone else, but the inside held a story written in proper English with no errors in grammar or spelling that he could see. It was better than nothing, even if the story turned into nothing but blatant sex scenes. So Zexion approached the gift shop counter and handed the girl the book and the small allotment of money Xaldin had given him for the purchase, declined a bag, took back his change, picked up the book and made his way back out of the shop to find…

That he'd been left behind.

Zexion very calmly made his way to a bench outside the shop and sat down. He'd hoped the book would keep him preoccupied through the rest of the car ride, because Xigbar's horrid attempts at getting everyone to sing A Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall were not helping him pass the time cramped up in the car very pleasantly, however now it looked like it would only serve to keep him preoccupied till his former comrades noticed he was missing. He opened the book and began reading, tears welling up in his eyes be damned.

* * *

><p>"AAAAAAAQUUUUUUUUAAAAAA!"<p>

Vanitus willed himself not to shove the boy off the cliff they both shared. While it was VERY tempting, he knew full well that if he did he stood a slimmer chance of getting off it. Not to mention, it would be somewhat lonely, but most importantly, he NEEDED Ventus to make a ruckus for them in the hopes that SOMEBODY had the integrity to come investigate the screams.

"TEEEEEEERRAAAAAAAA!"

But by the GODS if that voice wasn't annoying as all fuck to him when it was straining so hard to reach those who simply would not yield to be summoned by it.

"AAAAAAAAQUUUUUAAAAAA! TEEEEEEEERRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! AAAAQUUUUUAAAA!"

"SHUT UP!"

Ventus snapped his head at Vanitus, like he'd forgotten that the dark haired boy was there. "Just...Shut Up!" Vanitus reiterated. "Gawd, they aren't coming! Give it a rest for a little bit!"

"They have to come," Ventus said, his voice cracking under the use of his regular tone. "They're my friends. I know they will."

Vanitus scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Well, at least consider the possibility that they might not be in the vicinity right now and STOP. Your screaming is giving me a headache."

"You could help too!" Ventus countered. "Instead of just sitting there!"

"Really, Venny? Do you think I could?" the darker boy mocked in a fake surprised tone. "Why, silly me, I didn't think for one second that your friends, who must be so desperate to find you, would come looking if I called out to them too. Because, you know, they're just as likely to help a hated enemy as they are a friend." Then he glowered at the blond. Ventus just glared back. "Besides," Vanitus went on, drawing his knees closer to himself. "They're probably just off fucking somewhere and forgot about you."

"That's Not True!" Ventus snapped. "They Would NEVER Do That—"

"Oh, I wouldn't sound so sure of myself if I were you, Venny. Don't tell me that in all the time you spent with them you never noticed?"

"…Never…never noticed…what?"

A wicked grin seeped onto Vanitus' features. "You never did, really? You're such a child. Tell me, have your balls even dropped yet Venny?"

"Stop messing around," the blond attempted to growl, but his hoarse voice made it sound more like a mewl. "If you're just up to your old tricks—"

"Afraid I'm not this time, kid," the other said and unfurled his legs. "The feelings those two have for one another is real. They're in luuuuuuv." He clasped his hands and batted his eyes at Ventus with a cheesy grin on his face. When his would-be victim just blinked at him with a disbelieving look on his face, he went on, using his casual voice this time. "It's simple really, when you think about it. They're going to pair off and when they do, naturally, they're going to want space. Without you in it. And where does that leave you? Alone and friendless."

"You're lying! I know them, they would never do that to me!"

"Again with this '_friendship conquers aaaaall!_' bullshit?" Vanitus' voice was harsh and mocking. "Wake up! You're lying to yourself."

"No!"

"Quit living in that stupid fantasy world of yours and face facts."

"NO!"

"At least consider that they might not be in this world."

"NO, NO!"

"Where EVER it is that we are."

"NOOOO!"

"VENTUS!"

The blond looked up at the sudden call of his name and smiled in pure joy to see Terra leaning over the ledge of the cliff looking down at him. "Ventus! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine!" the boy replied. He pressed his belly against the ridge and reached for Terra, but the older boy temporarily disappeared from view. Ventus began to hyperventilate, until he heard Terra's voice call out louder than before, "AQUA! AQUA, I FOUND HIM! HE'S OVER HERE!" Vanitus smirked at the blond but said nothing. Ventus selectively choose to ignore that he'd almost started crying about the lies the boy had told him earlier.

Terra's head reappeared with Aqua beside him and instantly they were both trying to reach down to grab him. "Oh Ven, Ven," Aqua kept whispering, stretching her arm as far as it would go and willing it to be long enough. It wasn't. "Ventus, Ven, please, please reach for me…Terra, I can't get him! Terra I can't get him!" She flexed her hand and blinked away at the tears forming from being this close to her friend and still not having him within her grasp.

"It's okay, Aqua," Terra said calmly. The very tips of his fingers could brush Ventus' and that itself seemed to calm the woman down. She still kept reaching. "It's all okay now, see, he's right there and not going anywhere…reach Ventus, c'mon…"

"I'm trying," the boy said. He stood on the very tips of his toes and tried so hard to get a grip on either of their hands. He pulled back for a moment, Aqua almost started crying, then leaped as high as he could against the cliff. Part of the ledge to the side crumbled and he dare not try it again, despite almost getting a grasp on Terra's hand. "Please," he whispered up to them, "please don't leave me…" And tears were in his eyes too.

Vanitus watched the trio reaching for one another and how two of them were basically reducing themselves to tears over the lack of contact. By the look of it, Terra was about to start losing it too. So far, they'd chosen to ignore him but they weren't getting anywhere the way they were going. So Vanitus grabbed hold of Ventus, effectively getting Aqua to start screaming at him things he simply chose to ignore right back, and hoisted him the extra foot he needed for Terra to snare his hands and pull the boy up over the ledge. Vanitus pushed from below and soon the blond was gone from view and all he was left with was the sounds of his reunion with his friends. Vanitus waited for them to reappear for him, looking up at the ledge hopefully.

Aqua grabbed Ventus up in a hug the minute he was safely on land and started crying. Terra hugged them both and rocked gently, murmuring soothing sounds to them both as Ventus just clung and shook, glad this trial of separation was at long last over. They were filthy, and sweaty, and tired, and hungry, but they had each other and for the moment that was all that mattered. Slowly, the blond nuzzled his head out to look up at the sky and saw that night was blanketing the land. Darkness…Vanitus…

Ventus began to wiggle in the grasp of the others until they loosened enough for him to wiggle out. Carefully he crawled back to the ledge and leaned over. "Hey!" he called down to the boy still standing there. Vanitus looked up, cold and calculating, at him. He had pressed his back against the cliff and had been looking out at the growing darkness. His golden eyes still seemed to glint some light though, making him appear predatory and wild. Ventus smiled weakly and held out his hand to the boy.

"Ven, what are you doing?" Aqua asked. She tugged at the back of the boy's shirt. "Let's go, please? Don't…" Her voice trembled and faded but she took a firmer hold of her young friend and didn't let go.

"Ventus, just leave him," Terra chimed in. "If the roles were reversed it's what he'd do to any of us."

"No," Ventus said simply. He stretched a little more and gave Vanitus a puzzled look. The boy wasn't even reaching for him, just standing there staring with those yellow orbs. "C'mon! I'll help you up, just like I said I would, remember? Take my hand, it's okay."

"He's not going to take it Ven," Terra said. "Let's go, it's starting to get dark."

"Then we'll camp here tonight. I'm not leaving him until I know he'll be okay."

"Ventus," Aqua said as soothingly as she could. "Please don't do this. We just found each other again…"

"This isn't going to tear us apart again Aqua, trust me. I'm your friend right?" The boy pulled back and turned to look back at both of the older former Keybearers. "You both trust me, right?"

"Of course we do," Aqua said, forcing herself to smile a bit. Ventus could see she was really struggling to hold her mental stability together and he felt a pang of guilt at knowing that his actions now probably weren't helping her cope. Terra, however, remained as stern as he was to be about anything on the matter. He nodded once, but didn't vocalize and Ventus knew that he'd already made up his mind not to help the other boy at all. Even knowing all this, Ventus took a deep breath and steeled his own resolve.

"Trust in me then, that's all I'm asking. Please, Aqua?"

The woman's emotions played across her face all too clearly. So badly did she want to believe in her friend and trust him, but what he was asking of her was almost too much. She looked back at Terra, the friend that spoke clear what she wanted at that moment, to just leave without looking back, and she wanted to agree with him. The dilemma she faced was that Terra had already once betrayed her and fallen to Darkness, Ventus simply asked her to do what she could not. She didn't know who she could trust and she wasn't even sure she could trust herself at the moment. From the very moment she had woken up to Terra's comforting words, she believed all of this was some delusion her mind was playing out for her. She had decided to play along because she couldn't seem to get "reality," the nightmarish hell world filled with never-ending Heartless where she'd been left, to come back to her. At the back of her mind was the notion that she simply didn't exists anymore, along with several other thoughts of near impossible things, but she couldn't bring herself to entertain any them at the current time. It was such a delicate state, this world before her was in. One false move and the whole illusion could be ripped away again and she'd be alone. Oh, the torments her mind was putting her through!

"Aqua, Aqua!" Terra was calling for her, where had he gone? Oh, she had doubled over at some point…she didn't even realize she had leaned forward. "Aqua!" She was trembling again, was it because she was still damp? Was she cold? Was she crying? "Aqua, answer me!" She couldn't tell, she couldn't tell. Nothing felt real anymore. Where had her friends gone? "Aqua, look at me! Please Say Something!"

"Teh-Terra?...where's Ven?"

"I'm right here, Aqua." Something warm and dry pushed against her face and nuzzled. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. Are you okay?"

"I got my boys back. We'll be okay now."

"We don't have time to be messing around!" Terra's voice hissed harshly. "Ventus, we are leaving, now! She needs help—"

"And so does Vanitus! I don't like it anymore then you do, but we can't just leave him to—"

"I certainly can Ventus! You just watch me—"

"Well, I'm staying right here because I—"

"NO!" Aqua sat bolt up and grabbed on to both of the boys. "No, I just got you back! Don't Split Up! I just got you back! What Ven? What do you need? I'll do anything, just don't leave us, please!"

"Aqua, it's okay," the boy said, his face sad. "I won't leave you either. I'm right here." He took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly then worriedly glanced at Terra. The older man was obviously upset at the state Aqua was in, and it was clear he was struggling to keep from yelling at Ventus for using it against him. He did not stop himself from shooting the boy angry glares every once and a while.

"Fine," Terra conceded. "I'll help you get the damn heartless bastard. But I want you to know I'm only doing it so we can get the fuck out of here, understand?"

"I do. Thank you Terra."

"Where are you going?" Aqua asked meekly when they leaned her against a tree and started detaching themselves.

"Aqua, it's okay," Terra told her. "We have to do something…._good_…but it will only take Ven and I a moment, alright? Look, we're gonna be right there, you can watch us the whole time, see?" He pointed where Ventus had scurried back to the cliff. "Just rest for a minute, okay? We'll be right there…" She slowly nodded her head and eased back against the three, accepting his words. Terra smiled as reassuringly as he could at her, than stalked off to join Ventus, scowling as soon as his back was turned on her. "Alright, what are we doing about this?"

"Done squabbling amongst yourselves, are we now?" Vanitus called up to the other boys.

"Hey, punk! I still have half a mind to leave you down there!"

The raven only shrugged and looked up at them. "Are you strong enough to lift me and Ventus? Because you're going to have to be." The blond nodded and got down on his stomach. Sighing, Terra dropped to his knees beside him. He reached for the boy's stomach but was stopped by a sudden flinch. "Terra…" Ventus' voice was weak for a moment as he willed himself to look up at his friend. "…I trust you…in my heart…"

"I know, Ven," the brunette replied. Carefully he took hold of Ventus and helped the boy lower himself back over the ledge as the reached for the darker haired boy.

"One shot," Vanitus said, reaching for Ventus' hands. "Don't pussy out."

"No pressure," Ventus replied.

Vanitus braced, then leapt and started scrambling up as soon as his hand was ensnared by Ventus. The blond pulled with all his strength and as soon as Terra could, he grabbed hold of the raven and dragged him and Ven as far away from the ledge as he deemed safe. As soon as all three were over they let go, and Terra and Ventus scooted away from the dark teen to move back to Aqua. She had closed her eyes and so missed the moment of awkward staring between the boys. "Alright," Terra said, being the first to break the silence that fell over them. "Everyone's even. Let's just go our separate ways and not cross paths anymore. Agreed?"

"Ah, but that's no fuuuuun," Vanitus said in a sing-song tone as he crossed his arms. "Venny, didn't you tell him about your promise?"

Terra snapped his head to glare at the boy who was unsure if he should look meekly up at his friend or glare in turn at the blabbermouth. "What. Promise," Terra growled.

"He got scared you were never gonna come for him," Vanitus went on, deciding for Ventus that what he needed to do was glare at the teen. "I think his words were 'we're in this together! No matter what, we'll see it through to the end!'" When he paraphrased Ventus' words, his voice became annoyingly high pitched and he ended with a mocking smile of joy that slipped easily into his smug little smirk.

"Fuck. That. I don't care if Ventus promised you his very BODY, you're NOT coming with us! Everything is clear from here, do you understand me? Get Out!"

Vanitus just rolled his eyes and scoffed at the irate brunette's words. But his gaze landed on the blond he'd been stuck with for the better half of the day and he waited for a response. The youngest boy fidgeted under the gaze that held him, seeming for once to hold only idle curiosity rather than malice or hate. "Terra," he said, finally looking up at his friend, "we need to get going. Let him do as he wants." Then he cast a sad look at the isolated male.

Terra looked up at the quickly darkening sky. It was already fairly hard to see his friends in the fading twilight and he sighed. "We aren't getting anywhere now," he told the boy. "I don't know these woods and it's no use trying to navigate in the dark." He shot a look Vanitus' way. "Though I suppose _you_ don't mind it one bit."

"Word on the street is, you don't either," Vanitus shot back. He jumped into a fighting crouch when Terra made for him, even as Ventus grabbed his friend and did the best he could to call him off. Which didn't slow Terra down one bit, but the begging cries from the smaller boy to not do something foolish did waiver his resolve. "Get out of here!" Terra growled. "I'll beat your face in if I see it in the morning!"

"Promise?" Vanitus taunted, but skittered off into the shadows, where he seemed to disappear like he was so good at. In his wake he left the males tense and upset, both at their situations and a little bit each other.

"Sorry," Ventus murmured in the darkness of night. "When I woke up and he was the only one there…"

"I know," Terra said. "Believe me Ven, I get it. All of this—" He swept his hand at nothing that could be seen. "—Whatever is going on, it's unnerving. I woke up buried in a cave, and nearly went postal. At first I couldn't even remember what had happened, than I tried to summon my Keyblade and…_everything_ just came rushing back…like a flood…I couldn't…" He sighed heavily, than inhaled sharply. Ventus picked his way back over to Terra and wrapped his arms around the man's waist once more, this time in a gentle hug. He was trembling and the boy sensed he was holding in his emotions. "I can't do this now, Ven…we have…other things we need to take care of first…" Ventus nodded against Terra's waist, then let go without letting the contact fade. He was pulled down by the older male to where Aqua still sat already resting. The two coiled around her protectively and waited, in silent darkness, for sleep to take them as well.

**End Chapter 2.**


End file.
